Civil War: Avenging Ties
by Aura Mackenzie
Summary: Sequel to Avenging Enhanced. Sophie and Bucky's mission led to the passing of the Superhuman Registration Act. As the heroes pick sides, Captain America, Hawkeye, and the Winter Soldier are looking at more than the freedoms it takes away from heroes... They are looking at how their former friends and teammates are trying to use Sophie as a scapegoat.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One:**

 _Author's Note: This is the sequel to Avenging Enhanced. If you have not read it, plead read it before reading this fic. Also, this is a cross between comics, movies, and television characters/personalities._

 **Stark's POV:**

"She's still unconscious?" I asked Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow, when I got to the Sudan.

"In the middle of the blast zone. We haven't been able to get in close enough to get her out," she told me.

"Let's go," I replied.

I took Romanoff and carried her over the wreckage that was once the village square to where Sophie Holden, agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., Romanoff's charge as part of Strike Team Echo, lay unconscious. Surveillance showed that Holden and her partner James Buchanan Barnes, aka Bucky, aka The Winter Soldier, had some issues and she portaled him out, but was caught in the ensuing explosion. If either of them were normal, we'd probably have lost two agents. Neither was. Sophie was still alive, even though she was at the epicenter of the blast… and now Romanoff and I had to arrest her.

"Should we put power restraints on her, Stark?" Romanoff asked when we got to Sophie.

I looked at her. She looked more broken than I'd ever seen her before. She was barely eighteen. She was a genius, a protégé of mine. Her work in the lab at S.H.I.E.L.D. was revolutionary. When I went back into retirement, I was happy to leave the lab in her hands. Back home, she even had a fiancé. She had turned her life around so much in the last year, but it was like we were back at square one with her.

"No. It's too risky," I finally replied.

"What if she wakes up? With her power…" Romanoff started.

"She's been unconscious for nearly a day. Her body was in the blast zone. Even if she wakes up, she's going to be weak when she does. If she's still out like this, it's because her body needs to heal. If we put the power restraints on her, we'll risk taking away her healing factor. That could kill her. We're here to arrest her, not kill her," I cut Romanoff off.

She nodded at me and helped me put Sophie on a stretcher. When we got out of the blast zone, we put restraints on her, cuffing her to the gurney that we were putting on the Quinjet to take her back to the Avengers' base, where Sophie would be kept until she was healed, then put in prison pending trial.

 **Steve's POV:**

The news was on and a special report started to play. At first, I was going to change the channel, but then they mentioned S.H.I.E.L.D. It wasn't every day that S.H.I.E.L.D. was mentioned on the news.

"… the agent in question, is one of the agency's superhuman agents. She is believed to have been on official business in the Sudan when the explosion happened. Reports say there were two agents involved, but the agent that was taken into custody within the last hour seemed to open some sort of portal and push the other agent through after he started going on a rampage in the village square.

"Here is the footage of Iron Man taking the agent responsible for a death toll that is estimated to be over 100 women and children into custody. Reports are that the Avengers will take responsibility for the agent until she is well enough to be transferred to a prison for superhumans to await her trial."

As the reporter was talking, there was footage of Stark and Natasha taking Sophie, who was unconscious and looked half dead, and loading her onto a Quinjet, shackled to a gurney. My heart dropped into my stomach. Bucky was nowhere to be found, but according to the report, Sophie got him out. What had happened? I had to find him. Suddenly, my attention was pulled back to the news.

"This incident has built more support for the proposed Superhuman Registration Act. In the aftermath of this tragedy, congress is calling for legislation to regulate superhumans or those with technology that would give them superhuman abilities, such as Iron Man. With public opinion turning further against superhumans who, to date, have operated outside the constraints of the law, leaving massive damages in their wake, it is a question of what the act will contain at this point, not so much if it will pass anymore."

I knew the reporter was right. I also knew that if I didn't find Bucky and fast, he would end up in the same position as Sophie. There was no way I could allow that to happen. I called the one person I knew who would help me no matter what.

"What's up, Cap?" Sam Wilson, aka Falcon, asked as he picked up his phone.

"Have you seen the news?"

"No, been busy training. What's going on?"

I explained what happened. 

"I'm sorry about Sophie. Have they found Barnes?"

"No. That's why I'm calling."

"You wanna look for him again, don't you?"

"Will you help me?"

"You know I will, Cap. The only way we're going to get any answers about what happened out there is to find him."

"Exactly. And now there's more support for the Superhuman Registration Act. It's going to pass. This was the catalyst that people needed, Sam. We need to find Bucky and get him off the grid as soon as possible."

"I'm on my way to you. I'll be there as soon as possible, with a Quinjet that I'll keep in stealth mode so we can't be traced. It will make it quicker for us to track him with it."

I didn't like the idea of taking a Quinjet, but Sam was right.

"Alright. I'll see you soon."

 **Bucky's POV:**

I had no idea where they had come from. How had they found me? I thought back to what had happened before I wound up in the safehouse I was in.

" _Have you really turned traitor, Sergeant?" one of them asked me in Russian. "You know that you belong with us."_

" _I don't know what you're talking about," I replied in Russian, trying not to engage them._

" _Bucky, retreat," Sophie said into my comms._

" _Come with us, Soldier. We will remind you of who you_ really _are. Our asset," the second man said._

 _My mind started to wander to what these men were talking about. Years of conditioning, the electroshock therapy, cryostasis, mind manipulation, training, to keep me the perfect spy and assassin. Now that I had my memories back, I realized just how much torture I actually went through at the hands of the organization they obviously worked for._

 _They went to grab me. I couldn't stand the idea of losing everything again. I attacked. Anyone who tried to touch me was the enemy._

" _Bucky! Stop! Get to the meeting point!" Sophie said, appearing in front of me by way of fire portal._

 _I kept fighting off anyone who was trying to touch me. Suddenly, a portal appeared behind me. Sophie threw a disc at my cybernetic arm and I lost the ability to use it. She looked panicked. She kicked me into the portal, but as it closed, I saw the village square exploded… with Sophie still in the middle of it._

"Oh God. Sophie, please tell me that I didn't get you killed," I said to myself out loud.

Suddenly, I realized there were two people in the safehouse with me. I went on the attack. We fought for a bit, one of them was no match for me. He was easy to knock out. The other, not as much. After what seemed like hours, they caught me. My cybernetic arm was caught in a hydraulic press, successfully restraining me.

"Bucky!" the one who was able to fight me said to me. "Bucky! Look at me, Buck!"

I couldn't focus.

"What are we supposed to do with him, Cap?"

"If the timing were different, we could call Stark."

"But the accords. The registration act. All three of us are on the wrong side. We can't call Tony, Cap."

"I know, Sam."

"I know a guy who can help us."

"Call him. After we get Bucky a little better, we need to get to Barton."

One of the two men walked away. The one who kept trying to talk to me came back. He knelt down in front of me, looking me in the eye. I wanted to see him, but it was hard.

"Bucky, it's me. It's Steve. Come back to me, Buck. I need you."

His voice. His desperate plea for me. It touched something in me.

"I need my best friend right now. The world is falling apart and I need you, Bucky."

I finally looked at him… really looked at him. He was broken. He had been crying recently. This was my best friend, I was remembering. I was realizing what was going on… and I knew I messed up.

"Sophie… Steve… I'm so sorry."

"She's alive, Buck. She's in trouble, but she's alive."

"What are you talking about? The explosion…"

"She survived. But she was arrested."

" _Arrested_? For what?"

"Terrorism for one thing," Steve said to me. "What happened out there?"

I couldn't look at him. His fiancée was in jail because of me. I had messed up.

"Bucky?"

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap."

"What are you talking about?"

I told him what I remembered.

"Bucky… you can't help that."

"Really, Steve? I nearly killed our best friend, your fiancée, and you're going to tell me that it's okay?"

"None of this is okay, Buck. But you can't control having issues like that. They even have a term for it nowadays. It's called post traumatic stress disorder. Sam used to run a group for veterans at the VA."

"How can you be so understanding? Sophie is in jail. They probably have the power restraints on her again…"

"You're my best friend, too, Bucky. I'm worried about both of you. You didn't intentionally do this. And right now, I can help you," Steve said to me. "Sophie… when you're better and we have more intel, we'll get Sophie back. We just need to be careful since the new legislation passed."

"What new legislation?"

"After the incident in the Sudan, Congress pushed through a bill called the Superhuman Registration Act. All persons with superhuman abilities or the technology that gives them the abilities need to register with the government for training and assignment."

"I'm not doing that."

"Neither did I. I'm the leader of the resistance. We're called the Secret Avengers, Bucky. There are a decent number of heroes who don't think this legislation is a good idea."

 **Sophie's POV:**

I woke up in a cell. My head was fuzzy and I could tell that my body has healed from a major trauma. When I tried to sit up, I can't. I realized that in addition to the familiar feel of the power restraints that I once wore for two weeks, I'm shackled to the bed.

"Don't bother trying to use your powers to get out of this, Sophie," a familiar voice I place as Stark's says from outside the cell.

"Stark, what the hell is going on?"

"You and Barnes messed up. The people want the heroes held accountable, Sophie. The two of you destroyed a village square. Where is he?"

"Bucky? I don't know. Even if I did, you know I'll never tell you."

"Then get comfortable. You, your friend, your fiancé, and a few others, are in violation of the law by not registering your abilities with the government. A new law passed with my help, Sophie, after the fiasco in the Sudan, thanks to you and Barnes. Now, enhanced humans need to register with the government and be assigned to situations. If they will not adhere to that, they face the consequences, which will include prison. Do you want to consider joining the registration list? They may be lenient on you if you do. If not, given your past transgressions…"

"Are you trying to blackmail me, Stark?"

"I'm just saying, Sophie, you are too brilliant a mind to waste in a prison cell. You have too much to offer this world. Swallow your pride and register. I might be able to get you out of jail if you do."

"But that's not even a definite."

"No, it's not."

"Then I'd rather keep my dignity than become a number on a list for them to call."

"Have it your way."

Stark walked away, leaving me to figure out how I was going to get myself out of this one.

 **Romanoff's POV:**

"Any luck getting intel out of her?" I asked Stark.

"No. She won't listen to reason. She knows she's in trouble, but she won't register, won't give up Barnes. She'd rather take her chances going to prison for the rest of her life, which none of us even know what kind of life span to expect her to have, then give anything up," he replied. "Any luck getting Barton to agree to come talk some sense into her?"

 _Right After Sophie's Arrest:_

" _How could you be such a fool, Natasha?! Following Stark into this mess, arresting my_ daughter _! What did you think was going to happen when you did this? Did you think that you I would be okay with this?"_

" _I'm not a fool, Clint. Sophie caused a major explosion on her mission. She was careless. Barnes is in the wind. Incidents like this are the reason the legislation was suggested to begin with, but to have her and Barnes going nuts like this out there, it didn't help matters."_

" _You're supposed to be my partner, my friend, the one I can trust, Natasha. Why are you doing this?"_

" _Do you realize how many people died in the Sudan because of them? And she's not talking, Clint. She won't tell us where Barnes is. How are we supposed to try to help her if she's fighting us?"_

" _Why should she trust you? You betrayed her! You're using her as a scapegoat and she's not going to give up Barnes! You know that already! So what do you really want, here?"_

" _We want you to talk her into cooperating. Give up Barnes, talk her onto the registration. If you do, we might be able to keep her out of prison."_

" _I'm not going to do that, Natasha. Don't you see that the registration is dangerous? If that list gets hacked or stolen then everyone on there is compromised, their families in danger. How can anyone be asked to do that, when we know that the people who will be the first to join will be the heroes, and still go out there and protect the world? What kind of gratitude is it that we've all risked everything and now we need to have our families put in danger to protect the greater good too? I can't do it, Natasha."_

" _You do realize, if she is tried for her crimes in the political firestorm going on right now she will be convicted of treason and you will_ never _see her again, don't you? You convince her to sign up, register her abilities and we may be able to work with her."_

" _I'm not going to ask her to do anything she wouldn't do. She's had too much of her life taken away by having choices forced on her. I won't do it, Natasha."_

" _So you're going to side with her boyfriend instead of me?"_

" _I'm siding with my_ conscience _, Natasha. Don't be a fool. You know Stark will take this too far in the long run. Get off that ship before it goes down."_

" _Warn Rogers that if he comes for her, I'll be waiting to arrest_ any _of you that try to break her out."_

" _Natasha…"_

" _I hope you don't regret this, Barton."_

 _I hung up on him, angry that the man I had come to count on so much was turning his back on me._

Present:

"No. Barton is on Rogers' side in all of this."

"Great. So Legolas is going to be zero help in all of this?"

"No. He might be a problem though."

"You don't think he'd… He's _retired_."

"We have his daughter in custody, Stark. I wouldn't put anything past him. And keep in mind, Barton's career as a hero started on the wrong side of the law. He's no stranger to this. Don't count on him just staying out of everything, especially with Sophie in the center."

"Great. So we have a master assassin, the Super Soldier, the Winter Soldier who's in the wind, Falcon, and who know who else backing the resistance. This is going to cause a lot of trouble as this gets out."

"We need to lock this prison down as tight as we can."

"I'm already working on that. And I've been working on another prison, one out of this dimension, specifically for superhumans. Once it's operational, it will be a lot easier to handle situations like this," Stark told me. "As for the problem with people wanting to back the Captain, I'm trying to work on that, too."

 **Stark's POV:**

I knocked on the door, waiting for the residents to let me in. After a minute, a red-head let me in. She hugged me in greeting.

"Hey, Mary Jane. How are you doing?" I asked.

"Not too bad, considering, Tony. I'm guessing you're here to see Peter?"

"Yeah. I need to talk to him about what's going on in the world."

"I'll go get him. Hang on," she said as she walked out of the room.

A few minutes later, a guy walked into the living room. To those who knew him best, he was Peter Parker. To the rest of the world, he was also Spider Man. He had been since he was a teenager.

"Tony," he said as he came and greeted me. "I gotta admit, I wasn't expecting to see you, considering."

"We need to talk, Peter."

We sat down.

"What is it?"

"I think it's time for Spider Man to come forward. Join the registration."

"What?"

"I think you should lose the mask, show your true identity to the world."

"Why me, Tony?"

"Because you've guarded your identity closer than pretty much any other hero I can think of over the years. And right now, there are heroes who are forming a resistance against the registration act. Heroes that might be able to sway public opinion of the legislation. I think that if a hero like you came forward in support of the registration act, it could go a long way with gaining support."

Peter just looked at me.

"I don't know, Tony. I've been Spider Man since I was a teenager. I've always been very careful about who I let know that I was Spider Man because I don't want to put anyone I care about at risk. What you're asking me to do… It's one thing for me to follow the law and register myself with the government… But Tony, for me to unmask myself to the public… I need to really think about that. I'm not the only one who will be affected by it."

"I understand," I said to him as I stood up. "Just think about it and let me know."

I started to walk away.

"Tony?" Peter called to me.

"Yeah?" I replied turning back to him at the door.

"Did you really arrest Captain America's fiancée and Hawkeye's daughter?"

"Yeah, Peter, I did. She was responsible for a lot of deaths and is partially responsible for the legislation that all of us are facing now, so yeah, I arrested her. She's in a prison with power restraints on her so she can't hurt anyone," I said as I saw the look of shock on his face.

I left the door, hearing the lock click into place behind me.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two:**

 **Sophie's POV:**

"Get her talking, by any means necessary," Hill told Stark and Natasha. "Cause her pain, make her bleed, I don't care. We need Barnes. We need to put a lid on this resistance before it gets out of control. It's bad enough that Rogers is out there. If he gets to Barnes first, this is going to get much worse."

"You do realize she's barely an adult and she can be a valuable asset to us, Hill, don't you? Torturing her may not be for the best," Natasha said. "If we can flip her, she can go double agent for us, give us the rogues."

"I don't care what you do, get the information on Barnes."

Stark and Natasha nodded at Hill. They came and pulled me out of my cell at that point, taking me to a different room, obviously unaware of the fact that I heard everything they'd just said. Stark lifted me up and put me on an exam table and secured me to it.

"Just tell us where Barnes is, Sophie. Is he worth this?" Stark asked.

I said nothing. Suddenly, there was a sharp, piercing pain in my left thigh.

"Where is he, Holden?" Natasha asked.

"Go fuck yourself," I told her in Russian.

Another sharp, piercing pain, this time in my right thigh.

"You can stop this, Holden. Just tell us what we want to know. You don't have to endure all of this," Natasha tried to convince me.

Still I gave no information. Suddenly, the knife in my left thigh was removed. My skin had started to heal around it, making it more painful to have the sudden removal. I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from crying out. I wouldn't give them the satisfaction.

Every day, for hours on end, Natasha and Stark would take turns interrogating me. They would change how long they would leave the knives in me before pulling them out, to make the pain worse for me, to try to break me. I never gave them any information. Every day that they came back to interrogate me meant that Bucky was still out there.

They would stick the knives all over my body, my stomach, legs, arms, hands, and chest, to see if they could break me. The pain never got to me, I could manage physical pain, especially since I healed as quickly as I did. Stark finally took it one step further.

Stark grabbed my hand one day. I thought he was going to stick another knife in it. Instead, he took my engagement ring and gave it to Natasha.

"If you want that back, you'll tell us what we want to know," he said to me.

I looked at him, _really looked_ at him, which I hadn't done in days during the interrogations. My heart was hurting and I wanted to make him feel pain like I did at that moment.

"You may have me now, Stark. But keep in mind, I _will_ get out of this. Steve isn't going to let me stay in jail for the rest of my life, neither will Bucky or my Dad. And when I get out of here, I am going to make you pay. I will topple your world no matter how long it takes me," I said, my voice rasping. "I will _never_ forgive the two of you for all of this."

"You did this to yourself, Sophie," Natasha said.

A tear slid from my eye and I went back to forcing myself to ignore them.

 **Stark's POV:**

"Nothing's working, Hill. We've tried everything you told us to. Still, she's not talking."

"Maybe you're not cut out for this, Stark."

"Me? I don't do the dirty work on this. Romanoff does. I don't think we should be physically torturing an eighteen year old girl to find out where the Winter Soldier is. She's obviously more loyal to him than anyone else otherwise she would've given him up already."

"Have you threatened her family?" Hill asked.

"We're not doing that," Romanoff said.

"Excuse me?" Hill asked.

"It's one thing for us to go at her, but we are _not_ going to threaten Barton or his other kids because of her. That is where _I_ draw the line. Besides, none of us know where they are anyway. They've been untrackable since after Laura's death. They're completely off the grid," Romanoff said.

"I'm with her. She's barely an adult, but Sophie _is_ an adult. Barton's other kids aren't. We're not using them as tools. It's not gonna happen," I agreed. "And if you want to take on Barton, you have fun with that, Hill. You're on your own."

"You're both going to defy an order?" Hill asked.

"This one? Yes," Romanoff replied.

"Even with Barton turning on you?" Hill pulled a low blow.

"This isn't about him. He can't force information out of her any more than we can. Him and his kids have been through enough this year."

She was right. His wife, their mother, had killed herself a few months ago. The family was still healing. It was part of the reason that both of us would not go after them to get to Sophie.

"Are you forgetting that Sophie killed her _twin brother_ to protect Barton and those kids, Hill?" I spoke up. "I know the plan is to keep her incarcerated for a _very_ long time, but let's be realistic. If she gets out, what do you think she's going to do to us if we go after the people she loves, seeing as she's already threatening us, considering she's already killed her own brother?"

"She's dangerous, I'll give you that. But that's just another reason that she _can't_ get out of custody… Ever," Hill replied.

Romanoff looked at me. I didn't like this, and I didn't think she did either. Sophie had at one point been our student.

 **Barton's POV:**

I didn't know how I felt about keeping Bucky Barnes in my house. He was a fugitive. It was his mistake that landed Sophie in prison. But at the same time, Steve vouched for him and he _was_ Sophie's best friend, the one who took care of her when she had nobody else. Still, part of me couldn't help but wonder what the fuck happened to make him go off-mission and risk Sophie. I got my answer a few nights after he started staying with us.

Bucky was staying in a first floor guest room, away from the kids and Anya. I didn't trust him fully at the moment and didn't want to risk him doing something that would hurt or scare them. It was the middle of the night. I was up looking out the window, thinking about everything going on when I heard the crash downstairs. I ran out of my room, reassuring Anya and the kids to stay upstairs in their room, and with my bow and quiver, went downstairs.

He was throwing things in the guest room. It was like he didn't know where he was. When I saw the look on his face, I knew… Bucky Barnes was suffering severe PTSD. I put my bow and quiver down outside the room, I wasn't stupid. I knew I couldn't take him in a fight. After calling Steve and telling him what was going on, I went into the room.

"Barnes. Barnes, look at me," I said to him.

He looked at me with rage. He wasn't seeing me, but the people who had tortured him for the majority of his life. I felt for the guy and it made me realize, if this was how he had started acting in the field, as much as I wanted to hate him for the situation my daughter was in, I couldn't. Sophie did the only thing she could to try to pacify the situation by getting him out of there. She couldn't have known about the bombs. If she had, she wouldn't have used the portal. Still, if this was even a fraction of what he was starting to act like in the field, her making an emergency extraction was the only course of action. Things may have turned out bad, but this man had been responsible for setting off some of the most major catastrophic events in the last 70 years. Things could have been worse… Much worse.

"James! Sergeant Barnes! Look at me!" I called to him.

Bucky stopped throwing things for a minute and stared at me, confused. I'm guessing that not many people who have called him Sergeant Barnes since World War II have done it in English. I could have spoken to him in Russian, but Steve had already warned me it was Russian agents that set off the PTSD episode in the Sudan. If I spoke Russian to him now he might attack.

"What do you want from me?!" he shouted at me.

Carefully, I moved closer to him, still keeping a distance between us.

"Bucky, do you remember me? I'm Clint Barton. I'm Sophie Holden's father. This is my house. You're safe here. Nobody can find you here and nobody will hurt you here," I said, trying to soothe him.

He looked at me and I could see he was trying to piece together what I said.

"Sophie…" he said, and fell to his knees after a few minutes, in tears finally remembering. "I failed her."

Bucky was miserable. It was clear that he hated himself for his PTSD affecting Sophie's safety. I couldn't hate him. He needed help. We all had issues in our past, he just had more of them.

"Bucky, no. You didn't fail her. You had an issue and she did what she needed to in order to protect you. Now, we need to help you get back on your feet so you can help us get her back. Nobody has the experience that you do with black ops, not even Natasha and me."

"Why don't you hate me, Barton? Your daughter is in prison because of me."

"We _all_ have red in our ledger, Barnes. Rogers included. Sometimes it comes back to bite us in the ass. When that happens, we need to pick ourselves back up and deal with the aftermath."

He looked at me with new respect.

"I'm older than you, but you have more insight."

"I've lived my life, knowing what I was doing whether it was right or wrong. Until less than a year ago, it had been over 70 years since the last time you had to worry about a conscience. It's a lot to have to deal with at once."

"Thank you, Clint. You could hate me for a lot of things, but you're trying to help me."

"You mean the world to Sophie. You are her family so, by default, you're my family. I have to let the rest go. I know you didn't put Sophie in danger on purpose. That's the only thing that matters."

 **Stark's POV:**

I had just gotten back to my office in Stark tower from Sophie's daily interrogation. It didn't go well, as usual. I hated doing it, but she was wrong and we needed her on our side, to do the right thing. That was why she had become an Avenger after all.

"You have a visitor, Sir," J.A.R.V.I.S. said to me.

"Who is it, Buddy?"

"Peter Parker, Sir."

"Send him in."

I pulled myself together, pouring myself a drink. These interrogations took a lot out of me, but I could only assume Peter was here to talk business with me. I only hoped that, unlike Sophie, he would do the right thing.

"Peter, how are you?" I asked him as he walked into my office.

"I'm good, Tony," he said looking at me. "Are _you_ okay?"

"Sometimes doing what's right doesn't feel good, Peter," I replied. "So what can I do for Spider Man today?"

"I wanted to talk to you about what you asked me to do," he started. "I registered as a superhuman as soon as the act went into law, but then you asked me to unmask myself to the public. It wasn't an easy choice to make because my anonymity has protected not only me, but M.J. and Aunt May…"

"I know it has. And I will respect if you choose not to unmask. You're registered, even if you go public while still masked, it will still go a long way for supporting the registration…"

"Tony, Mary Jane and Aunt May talked it over with me. We all agreed that maybe it _is_ time that Spider Man comes out of the shadows. They're willing to take that risk, but I need to make sure they're safe."

"I promise I'll do whatever I can to help, Peter. You're making a brave choice. Thank you."

"So how do you want to do this?"

"I can set up a press conference. You show up in your mask, say what you need to, and remove your mask."

"I guess we should get that done sooner rather than later," Peter said. "Before I change my mind."

"I'll make it happen."

 **Steve's POV:**

I spent a few days at Barton's house after he called me in the middle of the night about Bucky's PTSD episode. Sam and the other Secret Avengers were at my place. Bucky and I were just coming back into the house from sparring when a special report came onto the news. On the screen was Spider Man and Stark. Clint's kids were in front of the t.v.

"Hey Barton, I think you're gonna want to see this," I called out to him.

Clint came into the living room and sent his kids outside to play when he saw who was on the screen. Anya came into the room and the four of us watched the special report with great interest.

"Hi. Good Morning. Thank you for coming," Spider Man started. "I'm standing here today because… well because… I have an announcement to make."

He took his mask off, giving away his true identity of Peter Parker. I knew this was Stark's idea and suddenly I worried for Peter and his family. He was young and naïve. If he was doing this, it was because Stark convinced him it was the best thing given the political climate. He was using Peter as a pawn to battle the fact that I was publicly against the registration act.

"My name is Peter Parker and I've been Spider Man since I was fifteen years old…"

"Damn it!" Barton exclaimed. "Stark's using that poor kid. He doesn't realize what he's just gotten himself into."

"I know. But there's nothing we can do for him. As long as he's working with Stark, Peter Parker is no longer an ally," I replied.

"Cap, you don't mean," Barton said.

"Yeah, he does, Barton. As long as Peter Parker is working with Tony Stark, he's our enemy," Bucky answered for me. "We can try not to hurt him, since both of you seem so sure of his innocence, but he's no friend of ours. We can't trust him as long as Stark has his hooks in him."

"So you're just going to leave him to the sharks?" Anya asked.

"We don't have any other choice. He made a choice. It may have been based on manipulation by Stark, but it was still his choice. Unless he chooses to walk away from Stark, there's nothing we can do to help him without risking everyone else in the resistance ending up in prison. I won't risk everyone for one person," I replied to her as gently as I could. "If he changes his mind, comes to his senses and wants help, we will help him, Anya. I promise. But until and unless he does, our hands are tied."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three:**

 **Steve's POV:**

"I know that all of you are tired, you're stressed from having your lives turned upside down," I said to the members of my team. "But know that I am doing what I think is best and knowing that you have my back means the world to me. I will try to be the leader that all of you need and expect me to be."

"We got your back, Cap," said Barton. "Stark is out of his mind. Intel is saying he's working with S.H.I.E.L.D. to do anything to bring in anyone with superpowers."

"I fear that he may have a way to contain the superhumans eventually, if Reid Richards and he build on our conversations past," Hank piped up.

"What do you mean, Dr. Pym?" I asked.

"Over the years, Tony, Reid and I have had conversations about the fact that the prisons we've sent supervillains to have never held them. We'd discussed a prison that would be impenetrable."

"Where would it be, Dad?" Hope asked her father.

"Out of this realm, with limited portals as access points. I'm not sure they're there yet, but Reid and Tony are both intelligent men. Even without me, I'm sure they can work this out."

"Then we need to go for Sophie as soon as possible, and try to keep him from capturing as many of us while we're there as we can," I said.

 _A month later:_

 **Bucky's POV:**

I walked into Steve's room. He was standing by the window, staring out. I noticed his sketch book was open to a drawing he was making of her.

"What's going on, Buck?" he asked, sounding defeated.

Steve never sounded defeated, except around me and Barton. We were the only ones that saw the broken part of him, the part that was missing part of him. I think it because all of us were missing the same piece of our lives. Her. _Sophie._ Steve's fiancée, my best friend, and Barton's daughter.

"Scott and Hope have some intel on Sophie."

Steve took a deep breath and pulled himself together. When he got by me, he looked at his sketch book and closed it. Squeezing my shoulder, his walls were back up.

"Let's go," Steve said.

We got downstairs and we met the rest of the resistance team. Hank set up a monitor so Scott and Hope could show us what they found. Barton handed Steve a cup of coffee as he got to the bottom of the stairs. Sophie's arrest seemed to have bonded the two of them.

"We know where they're holding her," Scott began unceremoniously.

"But it's not going to be easy to get her out," Hope cut him off.

Hope pushed a few buttons and pulled up the schematics of a prison.

"This is the prison Sophie is being held, pending her trial for charges of murder, terrorism, and a whole list of other things. Essentially, they dug up Sophie's history and tacked it onto the charges for the incident in the Sudan," Hope said. "It is heavily guarded by the registered members of the team. Stark had a hand in setting up the security."

"But we think we know how we can get her out," Scott said.

"How?" Steve asked.

"My suit," Hope said. "We'll need distractions, enough to pull the team out of the prison. Then Scott can shrink, bring her my suit, and guide her out."

"It won't work," I said.

"Why?" asked Clint.

"If Stark has her, he's got the power restraints on her. I'm sure he's done something so they're not so easy to short out."

"That's what my allies do best," Scott said, smiling. "That's what the crazy ants are for."

"Excuse me?" I asked.

"The crazy ant can generate a small amount of electricity alone. In a group, the impact of the jolt they produce can shut down some of the most sophisticated systems out there," Hope explained.

"You'll hurt her!" I shouted.

"Bucky," Hank started, "We don't want to hurt her, but Scott and the ants are the easiest way to get her out. Her body will hopefully start to heal any injuries she sustains before she even gets the suit on. But you're right. If she has the power restraints on, I'm not sure the Pym Particles that power Hope's suit will work on her, which will mean this, everyone risking their freedom to cause the distractions, will be for nothing."

"Clint?" I asked, hoping he'd object to them hurting her.

"Are you sure that nothing will permanently injure her in this?" Clint asked.

"She'll be fine," Hope assured him.

"Then what do we do?" Steve asked.

 **Steve's POV:**

Everyone had their mission objective. Bucky led them into our basement, into the lab that Sophie made. She had stored weapons she designed in there.

"Are you alright, Steve?" Clint asked me.

"I just want her back, Clint. I _need_ to get her back. Not just for me. For Bucky. He's been beating himself senseless since we were able to calm him down from that episode. Once he realized what he'd done and that she was caught for it… it's been hard for him. Especially after she was willing to sacrifice her freedom for his so _he_ didn't pay for _her_ mistakes," I replied.

"I understand."

"I miss her so much, Clint."

"I know. So do I."

"I wish I had done the selfish thing for once and asked her to stay home with me. We had just gotten _engaged_."

"If Bucky had gone alone, we don't know that things wouldn't have turned out worse."

"I guess you're right."

"And you know that the two of them will die for each other."

"I know," I said, conceding that I couldn't change what happened.

Bucky came back upstairs with the team. Hope would be staying and running comms and surveillance from the lab in the basement with Hank. Bucky handed me my new gun, which worked like Stark's Iron Man suit's repulsor rays, and my utility belt, which held Sophie's perfected healing factor, which she found a way to make work even on an enhanced with enhanced healing abilities. Looking at the equipment, most of it made by Sophie, it made me realize it wasn't just me, Bucky, and Clint who needed her. The Secret Avengers needed her to fight for what was right. The registration act took away our freedom and we were fighting to get it back; we needed her to do it.

"Alright everyone, listen up," I started, "Anyone who is going into this is going on a voluntary basis. We don't know what will happen when we get to that prison. We don't know what Stark and the military will have waiting for us, because we _do_ know that they will expect us to come for Sophie. He knows what she means to Bucky, Barton, and I.

"This is a serious firefight. If we pull this off flawlessly, we won't have any fatalities. But I won't lie to you, there is always the chance that this will end badly for both ends. So we need to be very careful about how we do this, not only to try to preserve the lives of everyone going, but because we don't want to have to kill any of our former allies or military personnel unnecessarily.

"Sophie needs us. She is the reason we have been able to fight the way we have since day one. Her weapons are a match for Stark technology and her healing serum has made all of us harder to take down. So is there anyone here who wants to bow out before we go?"

I looked around. Nobody budged.

"So this is the plan…"

 **Sophie's POV:**

There was something crawling on me. I could feel it. Looking down, I recognized the ants. _Scott,_ I thought to myself. He had to be controlling them. They were acting in decisive manners. A group was heading for each of my ankles and wrists, and a larger group for my neck. Suddenly, high voltages of electricity were being passed through my body at the five points the ants had gathered. I bit the inside of my cheeks so I didn't cry out in pain.

I felt the restraints unlock. I waited for the ants to clear the cell and let my body temperature rise, melting the shackles. When I was done, I stayed in the bed, waiting to see what would come next. Natasha made her pass to make sure that I was still in my cell. I glared at her for betraying me. After she left, Scott appeared in my cell in the Ant-Man suit.

"Put this on, quick. We have three minutes to get you out of here," he said to me handing me what I recognized as Hope's Wasp suit.

When I stood up to pull it on over my clothes, Scott gasped when he took in the shape I was in. The power restraints hadn't muted my healing abilities, but with the rate of "interrogations" I had gone through over whatever length of time I had been in the prison, my healing ability had slowed. I was showing signs of the abuse I suffered at the hands of my captors. I was weak, unsteady on my feet, and had wounds healing all over my body. Scott showed me which button to push to shrink and we both shrank.

"Can you hear me, Sophie?" he asked. "Are you okay?"

I nodded at him. The helmets had comms units.

"Then we have to go. Now. I need to get you out of the building before the first distraction shot is taken. You're going to be okay now. You're going home."

 _Home_ , I thought as he started running and I followed him. The more we ran, the more I could feel my power and focus returning to me, my injuries starting to heal a little faster. We had just cleared the building when the first distraction went off. I looked up and saw Falcon shooting at the prison. Bucky was using a grenade launcher to the south, staying in the cover of the trees.

Scott and I ran faster. He led me through the woods. I saw an arrow fly by and the front door of the building exploded. I knew Dad was there. When we got to a clearing, we stopped.

"Push the other button," he told me.

I pushed it. I grew to my normal size.

"Guys, I got her. We're at the meet-up," Scott said.

I took Hope's helmet off. From the woods to my east, Steve and Dad came out of the tree line.

"Everyone, pull back. Let's get out of here now. We have her," Steve said into his comms unit.

I ran into Dad and Steve's arms. Scott shrank and ran off. The distractions had stopped. I knew whoever came with them pulled back like Steve told them to. I turned, hearing noise behind us.

"Sophie?" Bucky said, coming from his position.

I ran into his arms, leaving Dad and Steve.

"Bucky, you're okay! I wasn't sure what happened to you after I sent you through that portal."

"Guys, we need to get out of here, we can have this reunion at home," Steve said.

Bucky and I grabbed Dad and Steve between us and opened a fire portal out of the woods.

 **Barton's POV:**

Bucky went and brought Anya, Cooper, Lila, and Nathaniel to his, Steve, and Sophie's house. They all knew Sophie had been captured, and while I had been going home most nights, if we had serious missions, like what we'd just done, I stayed overnight at the house with boys. When Sophie got out of the shower, the family was reunited.

We spent a few hours together before I put Cooper and Lila to bed in Sophie's room. Not long after, Anya took Nathaniel and went to bed in the guest room. Sophie and I went down to the lab for some privacy.

"I'm glad you're safe, Sophie," I said, pulling her into my arms.

It had been nearly two months since the incident in the Sudan that led to her arrest.

"I didn't realize the bombs were there, Dad. I wouldn't have risked the portal, but Bucky started freaking out and I knew I needed to get him out of that square before there were more civilian casualties."

"I know. You were trying to neutralize the situation. Without all the information there was nothing else you could have done."

"I can't believe Natasha helped Stark arrest and hold me. I thought she was supposed to be someone both of us could trust, Dad. What's going on with her?"

"I don't know, Sophie, but I do know she's been trying to find this place. It's a good thing you disabled all GPS trackers before you brought her back to the base the night of your engagement party."

"That feels like another life," Sophie said, looking at the floor. "Was Steve okay?"

"He put on a strong front, but he missed you. Today was important for him as much as me and Bucky. Bucky blames himself for your capture."

"Do you?"

"Not anymore, Sophie. I did at first because he was safe, again, and you were in the fire. But he stayed at my place for a few nights after Steve and Sam first found him, they didn't want to give him access to your lab, and the nightmares he would have, I knew that something serious happened. It happens. It happened in South Africa with all of us. Wanda put some kind of spell on Thor, Steve, Natasha, and Bruce. Bruce destroyed a city fighting Stark. Me and Stark were the only ones she couldn't get to because I've been through it and saw it coming and Stark was off fighting one of the Ultrons."

"What happened?"

"We had to take sanctuary with Laura at the farmhouse. Natasha, Thor, and Bruce were all shaken badly when they came out of their visions. Steve… well, he can put everything aside for the greater good when he has to. But my point is that every last one of them was vulnerable like never before. That's why, when I saw how Bucky was reacting in the days after your arrest, I knew Steve wasn't covering for him, and I knew _you_ did the right thing going in there and risking everything to get him out before he got more out of control."

"Thanks for having faith in me, Dad."

"How can I not after all the things you've pulled off against the odds, Sophie?"

I hugged her to me. She pulled my hearing aids out. I was about to argue with her but she pulled something out of one of her locked drawers and put them right behind my ears. I was able to hear again.

"What is that?" I asked pointing at the device she put behind my ears.

"A project I finished right before my mission that I never got to give you, Dad. I know that you're always worried about some of your arrows shorting your hearing aids or that they will get knocked out of your ear during a fight, leaving you vulnerable. These," she said pointing to the devices behind my ears, "can withstand even the sound of your supersonic arrows without causing further damage to you or shorting out and they won't fall off during a fight."

"How do you know?"

"I tested them myself. I used the arrows wearing them and then had one of my training sessions with Bucky. If they could hold through that, there's basically nothing that will knock those off of you."

"My genius daughter," I said kissing her cheek, "always looking out for her old man."

"Thank you, Dad. For being there today. I saw the arrow you shot before I saw you."

"Nothing could keep me from rescuing you, Sophie," I said looking at her. "Maybe you should get some rest? You look like you need time to recover from what happened in that prison…" he said, trying to prompt me to tell him what I went through.

"It's just because the bands started slowing my healing after a while. There were five this time. Ankles too. It made it harder for me to heal. No big deal."

"He didn't want to take any chances, did he?" I asked. "And it _is_ a big deal, Sophie. The types of things they must have done to you to cause you to end up in this shape… I have some idea of what they did to you. I've been the interrogator before. And both Stark and Natasha better keep their distance because I am just as dangerous."

"Dad, they were following Hill's orders. I overheard her tell them to do whatever it took to get Bucky's location out of me. Natasha tried to convince her to turn me double-agent instead, Hill told her Bucky was the priority," she said looking at the floor sadly.

"Well then Hill better watch her ass too," I said before looking at her. "What's wrong?"

"Tony had been my mentor. Natasha too. Now they're against us. And I'm worried that I'm going to have to do something that I don't want to."

"What's that, Sophie?"

"I think I might have to hack Stark and give J.A.R.V.I.S. a virus. It will make Stark and The Vision vulnerable, take them out of the fight."

 **Bucky's POV:**

Sophie came upstairs and Barton went right to bed. Sophie came and hugged me. I wanted to tell her I didn't deserve her forgiveness.

"Don't even think about pushing me away, James Barnes," she said to me in Russian. "You needed help. I'm okay. I'm just glad that you are. I've been worried about you."

"You need to worry about yourself a little more, Sophie. These injuries say that you're not okay right now. You need time to recover."

"Maybe I do, but you're important to me. I love you. You're my brother, no matter what. So stop beating yourself up. You can't control what was done to you in the past. Sometimes people react to things. We may be enhanced, but we are still _human_."

"You're too good to me, Sophie."

"No, I'm not. We're just good enough for each other, Bucky," she said, kissing my cheek. "I'll spend more time with you tomorrow? I'm tired. I want to go to bed."

"Tell Steve I'm glad we were able to get you home safe, Soph."

"The battle isn't over yet, Bucky."

"I know. As long as the accords are the law, none of us are safe."

She nodded at me before going upstairs.

 **Steve's POV:**

I celebrated with the team for about an hour, but then I needed some time alone. I was sitting by my window, my sketchpad in my lap, pencil in my hand, able to draw for the first time since I found out she was arrested. The door opened, but I knew it wasn't Bucky. I got up, putting my sketch pad on the chair.

"Sophie. I knew you'd come find me when you were ready."

"You're not mad I took so long?"

"I'm not the only one that's been worried and looking for you. Given the sleeping arrangements, I have no problem that I waited for you."

She kissed me and I finally felt like the house was home again.

"I love you, Steve. I may not be sure of a lot of things right now, but I am sure that I love you and I am glad that one day, we _will_ get married. I don't care when. Because being in that cell for all that time, I kept worrying about my family. _You_ are part of my family, in a different way than I ever expected. You are the first man I have ever loved and the thought that I was causing you pain because of what happened… I couldn't stand the thought…"

I kissed Sophie and got down on one knee, like I had in the restaurant. I slid her engagement ring back on her.

"Scott got it back for you. Hank already made sure that Stark didn't tamper with it."

She kissed me again as she threw her arms around me.

"I thought I had lost it for good. I hated Stark and Natasha for taking it from me. Your love was one of the things that gave me hope. I knew that as long as you were alive you would find a way to get me back. You, Dad, and Bucky. You wouldn't let me stay there, and it gave me hope. The fact that all of you loved me."

I led her to the bed and we just stretched out with me holding her.

"Our nightmare is over, Sophie. At least this one. We'll take things one step at a time from here," I told her.

I could feel where some of her injuries were. Part of me wanted to go find Stark and make him pay. But a bigger part of me just wanted to hold her and take care of her. She wasn't acting helpless, but Sophie wasn't objecting to anyone helping to take care of her at the moment either. It was a big step for her. I knew I wouldn't leave her no matter how much I wanted to make Stark regret the day he arrested my fiancée. Instead, I would stay by her side and help her as much as she would let me while her injuries healed from whatever happened to her in the prison, which she wouldn't talk about. But both Bucky and I had talked about that earlier when she was with Barton. Sophie wouldn't say a word about what she went through; at least not until she was ready, and only with the people she wanted to talk about it with. We would just have to be there for her in any way we could until she was okay.

 **Bucky's POV:**

It's been two weeks since we've gotten Sophie back. Things are almost back to normal between her, Steve, and me. We're fighting by each other's side, an even more unstoppable force than Sophie and I were on our own. Still, when we go out on missions, I can't help but feel more protective of her, like I can't let her down again.

"Bucky!" I hear Sophie call me from her lab.

I head down to her basement lab. She's standing at what seems to be an empty doorframe. There is a lot of tech on it.

"What is it, Soph?"

"Are you feeling adventurous today?" she asked me with a grin.

She finished a new project. That's what that grin tells me. When we haven't been sneaking around on missions, she's been in the lab busting her ass to give us new tech to fight Stark's tech.

"I think I just finished the teleportation device. I can't test it. I need to be here to monitor the output and I need someone who can go and teleport back. That leaves you."

I look at the doorframe. If this works, we have an easy escape route for anyone we bring to our property without either of us having to do all the heavy lifting.

"Where is it gonna send me?"

"Dad's house in Pennsylvania."

"Does he know?"

"If you agree, I'll text him to tell him I'm gonna have you portal in and out. Are you in?"

I see her excitement. I know what this could mean for us. It's a first step. Next step with this tech would to be able to make it portable.

"Set it up."

Sophie texted her father and got the device going. After her father replied, she told me to step through.

It isn't like stepping through the fire portal that I've had for nearly six months because of Sophie. Still, it's efficient and when I get over the shock of the teleportation itself, I realized that it worked. I'm standing outside Clint's barn, where he's standing with a cup of coffee. He handed me the cup of coffee and sent a message on his phone.

"Let's talk, Bucky," he said to me, as he took off his sunglasses.

 **Barton's POV:**

Bucky looked like he'd been betrayed. He was afraid of me. Part of me found this funny. He should be. A healthy dose of fear for your best friend's father when you've done the things he has with her is never a bad thing.

"You and Sophie planned this, didn't you?" he asked.

"You have to ask?"

"What did I do wrong?"

"It's not just Sophie. It's Steve."

He looked wounded that both of his best friends have asked me to talk to him.

"They're worried about you. You've become so focused on completing the mission, you're losing yourself to them," I said, trying to get through to him. "I know that mistakes were made in the past. Not just by you. Sophie's made her share of mistakes and so has Steve. But you're focusing on them too much. Do you get what I'm saying, Bucky?"

"Not really," he admitted.

I tried to think of how to break it down for him a different way.

"Alright, I know that you feel responsible for what happened to Sophie…"

"I was…"

"No, you weren't. And if _I_ can say that, it should mean something to you," I cut him off. "Every one of us has nightmares in our past that we'd like to stay there. Your nightmares came back for you and you reacted in a way that _any_ of us could have reacted in the same situation. But it's changing you, and yes, you're more focused on missions, but the playful side of you that used to get in trouble with Sophie when the two of you got bored after she gave you your memories back, its fading."

He looked at me slightly hurt.

"You mean to tell me that they had you give me an intervention to become less serious?" he asked.

"No, Bucky, they asked me to talk to you because they want you to stop blaming yourself and trying to be more than the person they already care so much about. Neither of them blames you for what happened to Sophie," I told him. "Honestly, I'll tell you what I told Sophie the night we got her back. Realizing the circumstances, the situation played out the only way it could without getting any worse."

"How could it have gotten any worse, Barton?"

"You could have had a complete PTSD meltdown that led you to revert back into the Winter Soldier mentality permanently, Bucky. If you turned back into the Winter Soldier that day, who knows what kind of damage could have been done."

"But all those civilians that Sophie and I killed. The kids…"

"It could have been a lot worse. I know that you're not used to having a conscience while doing this, but all of us who do this have had wound up doing things, intentionally or not, that have led to lives lost that we wished we could have saved. If you let it become the focus of your life, it will change you, permanently, destroy you from the inside out. Do you want to let that be you?"


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four:**

 **Steve's POV:**

Things were finally getting back to normal between Sophie, Bucky and I. He was relaxing around us again. Sophie and I agreed that ultimately having Barton talk to him had been a good thing.

Sophie installed teleportation devices in Barton's, Hank's, and Hope's houses, as well as a few other places we had secured and taken off the grid for our cause. All of the devices were linked and based on a number you could teleport yourself to any of the properties with ease. It was making our team harder to track. I walked down to the lab to find Hank and Sophie having a debate, not long after the installations were completed.

"Do you really think that Stark is wrong to say that teenagers with superhuman abilities should be trained, Sophie?"

"On that point, Hank, no. I don't disagree with Stark, but that's the only point in the superhuman registration act that I _don't_ disagree with," Sophie stated. "I have control of my abilities, but it was a matter of survival for me. I _had_ to learn at an early age and my mother recognized what happened because of the experiments. So there were no issues with having to hide it. But I was lucky in that respect, Hank."

"You don't think every parent would accept their child unconditionally?"

"In a perfect world, they would. But this isn't a perfect world, Hank. And in this _imperfect_ world there is a lot of fear of what those of us who are labeled as 'superhuman' can really do, what we really are, _if_ we're even actually human at all," Sophie admitted.

"So what would the two of you do? If we won and the superhuman registration act was repealed, what would you suggest be done about those with superhuman abilities?"

I looked at Sophie. We had talked about this before. We both felt the same way on the important issues.

"We would offer _any_ person with superhuman abilities that we found training. We may not be able to control what they would do once they learned how to control their abilities, but we would know who they are and what they could do, without the entire world having to know. If we had to stop them after, then we would," I explained. "But having us registered, it makes us vulnerable. For people like Sophie, it puts her family at risk."

"That's why we don't agree with the registration, Hank. We do agree with teaching anyone who needs the help, but if we are forced to be on a registry, people can get that information and track our families. Teenagers with abilities would have to worry about their parents. Parents with abilities would have to worry about their children. And in all of this, who worries about protecting the people? Because so far, all this registration act has done is turn _everyone_ who used to protect the people and even the villains against each other. It's become the registrants vs. the rogues, and the registrants aren't exactly being cautious coming after the rogues in public places. They're willing to have firefights with us even if it puts innocent people at risk, then Stark goes on tv and spins a story blaming us for any casualties and damages while his companies are hired to clean everything up," Sophie explained to Hank.

He looked between us. By this point, I had walked over to Sophie and taken her hand in mine. After a minute he nodded at us.

"Alright. I can see why the registration act needs to be repealed. I wouldn't want Hope or Scott on it," Hank said. "I just needed to understand why, you understand, don't you? On the surface, the registration act sounds like a good idea, centralizing and training those with abilities. But you're right, it also puts them all at risk."

"I understand why you had your doubts. Being part of an underground group of rogues isn't easy, I'm sure, Dr. Pym. But underneath the surface of that good idea lies a great deal of danger. People like Stark don't think about that. They just think of the short-term effects of getting control," I reminded him.

"Thank you for being patient and honest with me," Hank replied.

"Anytime, Hank. After everything you've done for this team, for _me_ , this is the least I could do," Sophie told him.

"I'll leave you two alone. I have a feeling Steve needs your attention right now, Sophie," Hank said, taking his leave from the room.

 **Sophie's POV:**

"Do you think we have to worry about Pym?" Steve asked when Hank left.

I looked to where Hank had just left the room.

"No. I think if he had any other issues, he would have brought them up. Besides, the registration act directly affects Hope and if Scott registered, it would put his daughter and ex-wife at risk," I explained. "Hank doesn't want that. We can trust him, he just needed to understand why he's fighting something that on the surface seems like the perfect solution."

Steve hugged me to him and kissed the top of my head.

"That's not why you came down here, though, is it?" I asked him.

"No, it's not. We have a mission with Bucky that we need to go on. And it's going to be risky," Steve replied.

"Why?"

"It's in Manhattan, Sophie."

"Manhattan…" I said thinking about why we would need to get there. "The Young Avengers! Shit, you're right. Those guys aren't ready to face all of this on their own."

"We picked up intel that Stark was closing in on them. We need to get there."

I jumped up and grabbed my bow and quiver. After hitting a few keys on my computer, a room opened with our new uniforms, made with new tech to help withstand our fights.

"Get Bucky. I'll start changing."

Bucky, Steve and I got into the city and went straight to the lair of the Young Avengers. Kate, Teddy, Eli, Billy, and Tommy were already in a battle against a team of S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives and a superhuman that looked like one of the Runaways.

"Captain America!" Kate shouted when she saw us.

Steve, Bucky, and I actively jumped into the fight, taking on the S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives, leaving the Young Avengers to take on the Runaway. Not long into the fight, Stark showed up in his Iron Man suit. I was prepared for this. Steve and Bucky knew this.

"Guys, grab the kids and fall back," I said as Stark got closer to us.

"You think you can take me on your own, Sophie?" Stark asked. "You've gotten arrogant."

"Says the man who wants to take away our freedom," I said sarcastically.

"Well if you and Metal Gear Solid over there hadn't blown up…"

Before he could finish his sentence, I surrounded him in an inferno. I knew it would take him a minute to put it out. While he did that, I shot the net arrow I created over him. The tech in the net would disable his Iron Man technology completely. Once I let the arrow fly, I ran back to Steve and Bucky. With Steve and the Young Avengers between me and Bucky, we opened a fire portal back to our house.

 **Bucky's POV:**

We got back to the house and Anya came right to the Young Avengers. After checking them thoroughly, she checked Sophie then Steve and me. Satisfied that we were all okay, she left our house, returning to Pennsylvania through the teleportation device.

"Thanks for the help," Billy said.

"We didn't think you guys would risk it, coming into the city," Kate said.

"Why not?" Steve asked.

"Well, it's just… You guys have been able to keep Stark and S.H.I.E.L.D. off your scent even _after_ you broke Sophie out of the prison. They're pretty pissed about that. The fact that you were crazy enough to come into Manhattan, knowing Stark Tower is in midtown… we just didn't expect the three of you," Teddy said.

"I thought we would end up in jail. How would we explain _that_ to our parents?" Tommy said.

We all laughed.

"We may not always agree with what you guys do, but we're not going to just leave you to Stark's mercy," I said. "The guy's an ass with a superiority complex and it's one thing for him to come after us, it's another thing to go after you guys, you're kids."

"Hey, Cap's fiancée is _barely_ older than us," Tommy said.

Steve blushed. Sophie slapped Tommy in the back of the head.

"Child abuse!" Tommy cried out.

"Do you want to go back to Manhattan?" Sophie asked.

"Never mind," Tommy said.

We all laughed at him.

"Bucky, do you have them?" Sophie asked me.

"Yeah, go relax with Steve."

Steve and Sophie walked away and I started showing the Young Avengers around the property.

"You guys have new uniforms," Kate mentioned.

"Sophie made them. Our old uniforms, our old equipment, was Stark tech. She's been replacing all of it with her own," I explained.

"You guys have a decent set-up here," Eli said.

"It's connected to several properties around the country. We'll probably move you to another one in the next few days."

"How can you move us? Those portals have to release energy signatures that Stark can trace," Billy said.

"Actually, while we're on the linked properties, he can't. Sophie's made scramblers so no energy or communications can be traced. But we don't need that," I said leading them down to the basement. "This is a teleportation device Sophie created. There is one at all of our underground locations. The menu has them numbered, no coordinates or information, so we would have to teach you how to use them. We use this to get everyone in and out of here without me and Sophie doing all the work. Our portals do require a certain amount of our own strength and the more people we're moving, the more it takes out of us. It's why the two of us are always together if there are more than two people to move. It makes it easier for both of us."

At that moment, Barton came through the teleportation device. The Young Avengers looked at him in astonishment.

"Hawkeye. What are you doing here?" Kate asked.

"I came to see Sophie," he replied.

I realized the Young Avengers didn't know. Most people didn't know.

"Why?" asked Kate. "Didn't she take over your job as an Avenger before her arrest?"

He looked at Kate like she had two heads.

"She's my daughter, Kate. So try to take it easy on her. She has my temper and is enhanced."

It was the Young Avengers turn to look at us like we had two heads.

"I thought your oldest was a boy," Billy, aka Wiccan said.

"So did I, until last year," Barton replied.

"Sophie had been with me for a year and a half before that, training, honing her skills," I said.

"Getting on the wrong side of the Avengers' radar," Sophie said from the door to the lab, before coming over and hugging Barton. "Hi, Dad. I saw the notification that someone came through."

"How did things go?" Barton asked.

"The net deployed exactly like we thought it would from the arrowhead. Stark's suit was sparking when we left through the portal and he was surrounded by a fire. Any back-up he would've had would have had to focus on putting that out, not trying to find us as we got these guys out," Sophie replied.

"Wait, you guys get notified if someone comes through this thing?" Tommy asked.

I pulled out my phone and showed him the program.

"Actually, Steve, Sophie, and I get notified when anyone enters the property. We bought this property before everything got out of hand and took it off the grid. We've just been connecting it to new properties as the resistance team has gotten bigger," I explained.

"Like my house," Barton said.

"So a push of a button and we'd be at your house?" Eli asked Barton.

"Yes, and Anya and I would be notified on our phones. Sophie installed the program onto the phones of the owners of the properties as she installed her security systems," Barton answered.

"So are you a super-soldier like the Captain and Winter Soldier or a tech genius like Stark?" Tommy asked Sophie.

Sophie looked at me. She was uncomfortable discussing things like that.

"Sophie is special," I replied instead, smiling at my adopted little sister. "She is one of a kind and we are lucky to have her."

"What, are _you_ in love with Barton's kid, too?" Tommy asked me.

With that, Barton and Sophie walked away.

"No, she's like my sister. I protected her and taught her what I could. I don't think I could ever look at her as anything else. I've been big brother, teacher, and mentor to her. And if you ever ask me if I'm in love with her again, I'll pulverize you, you twerp," I told Tommy.

"You'd have to catch me."

"Keep in mind, I can run a lot faster than a normal person, Tommy. I can even outrun Steve."

Tommy's look of confidence wavered. I smirked at his sudden wave of fear.

 **Barton's POV:**

The Young Avengers were moved from Sophie's place and the battles continued. We were losing ground and it was hard to keep hope. I was in the woods, having target practice with Kate when Anya called us back to the house.

"The battles between the anti-registration superhumans who are in violation of federal law and those who are following the law need to come to an end. Every time we go to battle in the streets we risk the safety of the civilians around us. It is with this in mind that I invite the leader of the resistance movement, Captain America, to peace talks," Stark was saying in a news conference.

"Captain, I know you and your resistance team are watching this. I am inviting you to these talks in good conscience, in an effort to put an end to the fighting so we can come together for the greater good. We'll call a ceasefire for the meeting. No weapons. You know how to contact me if you want to do this."

I looked at Anya and ran to the teleporter. When I got to Sophie's place, she, Steve, and Bucky were arguing.

"You can't trust him, Steve!" Sophie exclaimed.

"I have to try to end this peacefully, Sophie. He's right. It would be for the greater good."

"Steve, he's playing on your morality! You know he'll have some kind of contingency to screw you," Bucky argued.

"That's why we need to outsmart him. And we have the ability to do it," I cut into the fight.

"Dad! No, we _can't_ do this. Stark's got Natasha, Rhodes, The Vision, and how many others? He said no weapons, but I can guarantee he means it only for him and Steve. I can't lose him, and this is too risky," Sophie argued with me.

"Exactly. You said that Steve and Stark would be unarmed. So what, he has Nat, Rhodes, and The Vision? We've faced off with them and won before. Steve goes in unarmed, you carry his shield, Bucky, and all of us will surround the building, armed and ready for anything," I tried to argue.

"Your father is right," Steve said.

"NO!" Sophie yelled, running out of the room.

Steve's head dropped in defeat. He hated arguing with her, but he would never put one person above the greater good. I was about to try to go talk to her when Bucky stopped me.

"I got her, Barton," he said, leaving me and Steve alone.

"Do you really think this is a good idea, Steve?"

"It doesn't matter, Barton. If we can find a way to stop this, isn't it my job to do that?"

"She's right, Stark will stab you in the back."

"That's why I need to have faith in my team, just like I've asked them to have in me to go against Stark and the government."

"She's scared for you. She's never talked about what happened after Sudan, while Stark had her in prison."

"I know," Steve said. "I try to get her to talk about it, but she won't. She shakes her head and changes the subject. But sometimes she has such bad nightmares, I can't help but suspect things, Barton. She wakes up screaming. Bucky and I take turns comforting her because some nights she can't handle me, others him."

"You shouldn't tell me this, Cap."

"Why?"

"Because I may technically be retired, but I _am_ a master assassin. And you're talking about my little girl being hurt."

Steve gave me a weak smile.

"This is the best thing to do right now. Besides, it's not going to help our case if we refuse to try to work out a peaceful resolution to this," Steve said.

"Don't rush into it. Make sure your team is fully prepared before you go in. Don't leave anything to chance," I advised. "And make sure that whatever you do, you don't go into this while Sophie is mad at you."

"Why?" Steve asked confused.

"Can you imagine how either of you would feel if you go into this and one of you didn't come out alive? To have the last time you have together be on bad terms isn't a good way to go into something like this. It will have you in the wrong headspace, make both of you more likely to mess up."

He nodded at me.

 **Sophie's POV:**

I wasn't happy. Steve wasn't going to back down. I put my feelings aside, trying to understand his. While he may have had some good points, he knew I was right too. Still, in the end, I couldn't stop him, especially not when part of the reason the registry existed was me blowing that village square in the Sudan.

Our team was fully prepared. I had contacted Stark and told him to be prepared for a follow-up with the location and time, which would be within a few hours of the second contact. In the time between the resistance team spent all their free time training, running tactical strategies to take on the pro-registration team.

"Sophie!" Kate yelled, running into the basement.

"What's wrong?"

"Stark sent S.H.I.E.L.D. agents after the Runaways. They have no back-up in Los Angeles. We need to help them. It can't wait anymore," she answered, talking about our general stance to let the Runaways stay neutral as long as possible.

"Go get Bucky and Steve. We'll go. We need to use our portals, this is our best option. Hurry," I told her and started getting battle ready.

Half an hour later, Steve, Bucky and I were opening a portal from Hank's house to the Runaways, finding them in a battle with Cape-Killers. One of the Runaways was injured, so I threw Steve the electromagnetic bomb I had on my belt. He took it, threw it at the Cape-Killers, and we opened a portal to the Runaways' lair.

As the Runaways put Victor down, I quickly started setting up tech to hide us from Stark tech scans. As soon as I was sure we have enough up to hide temporarily, I went over to Victor. While I checked Victor, Steve and Bucky started checking the other Runaways.

Looking at the damage to Victor, I knew that I needed to get him to my lab or as a temporary measure, Hank's. I did what damage control I could to save his circuitry and told Bucky to be ready to make the jump. As soon as he and Steve finished with the other Runaways, I grabbed our tech, and we opened the portal to Hank's house.

"You guys should probably take the Runaways to the Young Avengers," I told Steve and Bucky as I take Victor to start working on him. "They'll be worried. Let them know I'll move Victor once I've got him semi-functional."

Steve and Bucky nodded at me and opened the teleporter. Half an hour later, I had Victor charging. Steve and Buck came back.

"How is he?" Steve asked.

"Working with Hank's equipment, I've done what I can. I can't move him for a few more hours. He needs to charge before I can tell if I've salvaged his circuits."

 **Steve's POV:**

"Can you leave him here unattended?" I asked Sophie.

"I can, but should we be leaving this safehouse?"

"As long as we're not using our powers, I think we'll be alright," I told her.

I looked at Bucky. He nodded. I couldn't believe he made me see the sense in this. Part of me knew we were going to get hell for it.

"What are you two up to?" Sophie asked us.

"Go get changed," Bucky said, giving her the clothes he picked out for her. "We'll get changed and meet you in the living room in twenty minutes. We have to hurry."

"Hurry for what?" Sophie asked.

"We'll tell you in the car," I told her. "Hank gave us the keys to his car."

Two and a half hours later, Sophie, Bucky, and I walked out of the county clerk's office. We had just gotten married with a confidential marriage license, one that allowed for us to get married without the license being searchable without a court order. We used Hank's address on the license since we did not need to give proof.

"My father is going to kill us," Sophie said before she kissed me.

"Maybe, but now there is nothing for us to regret," I said to her.

"We should get out of here. Just because you two lovebirds were able to tie the knot without getting caught doesn't mean we should push our luck out here," Bucky said.

"You're right," I said, leading us back to the car.

"Thank you, Bucky," Sophie said when we got in and were on our way back to Hank's house.

"For what?" Bucky replied.

"I know that Steve wouldn't have asked me to elope after going through the trouble of asking my dad if we could get married without you putting the idea in his head."

"Should I be offended that you think that, Sophie?" I asked my new bride.

"No, I think it was sweet that you wanted to be a gentleman and make sure that Dad was okay with this," Sophie told me.

"I wanted to make sure the two of you didn't let this war keep you apart. Things may not be going great, but you two have come so far. You needed this," Bucky said.

He was right. A little over a year ago, before I actually met Sophie, she had shot me when the Avengers were trying to find her. We didn't even know who we were looking for at the time. A few months later we captured her and Bucky and the two of us clashed immediately. It wasn't until after she found a way to reverse the problem with Bucky's memories, successfully restoring his memories, that we started to get close. By the time she turned eighteen, I had fallen in love with her.

"Just know that you're just as guilty in all of this as we are, Buck," I warned my best friend. "Barton's going to kill all three of us."

"Why would I want to live without my two best friends, Steve?" Bucky said sarcastically.

"Very funny, Bucky," Sophie said.

When we got to Hank's house, Victor was sitting in the living room.

"Victor!" Sophie said in shock. "How are you…"

"I assume that you are the one who repaired my circuits?" he asked Sophie.

She nodded.

"Thank you. But where am I? Where is the rest of my team?"

"You don't remember, Victor?" Bucky asked.

He shook his head.

"You took some damage from missiles that had Teflon on them, which deflected your abilities. It burnt out your circuitry. Your team was attacked by Cape-Killers. The Young Avengers told Sophie, so she brought Bucky and I out here to California to help. When she realized that she needed tech to help you, we got your team out, returning to the Hostel, but she needed different tech to help you. We tended to your team's urgent injuries before coming here, then treated anything else when we did get here. Bucky and I took your team through the teleporter downstairs to the Young Avengers. Sophie stayed to work on you," I explained.

"Where is here?" Victor asked.

"San Francisco," I told him.

"And where were all of you when I came around?"

"Personal business," Bucky replied.

"We should get you to the rest of your team. I'm sure they're anxious to know that you're okay," Sophie said.

 **Sophie's POV:**

We got back to our house and I sent Victor with Bucky to his team. I told him that Steve and I would be back in a bit, that we were going to Dad's house. We went through the teleporter and exited in Dad's basement.

Walking upstairs, I could hear Mom giving Lila and Cooper their lessons. It had been an uphill battle, but Cooper was finally accepting that Mom wasn't there to replace Laura, but did love Dad with all of her heart. Entering the living room, Mom stopped the lessons.

"Is everything okay, Sophie?" she asked me.

I nodded.

"Where's Dad?"

"Behind you," Dad replied. "What's going on?"

I looked from Steve to Dad. My nerves were going.

"Maybe you, Mom, Cooper, and Lila should sit down," I told Dad.

He looked at Steve and I suspiciously, but they sat down in the living room.

"What's going on, Sophie?" Lila asked.

"Mom, Dad…" I said, trying to work up the courage. "Steve and I… we, uh…"

I took a deep breath and looked at Steve. The love I saw made me realize that no matter how mad Dad was, I had him.

"Steve and I got married a few hours ago," I blurted out.

Lila was excited. Cooper looked like he wanted to be happy. Mom was hiding her excitement. Why?

"SOPHIE FRANCIS HOLDEN!" Dad shouted, jumping off the couch. "What were you thinking? I thought you weren't going to rush into this!"

I pulled Steve behind me. He put his hands on my shoulders. I relaxed with his touch.

"Dad, it wasn't planned, we were in California on a mission and had some time to kill before we could come back, so we eloped," I said. "With everything that's happened, with everything that's _still_ happening, how could we not take advantage of the moment?"

"She's right, Clint," Mom spoke up.

"Excuse me, Anya?" Dad asked.

"She's right. Nothing is guaranteed anymore," Mom started. "Look at the state of the world. Look at what everything the two of them have been through to be together. And all of this, while they are trying to make a better future for all those with superhuman powers, one where they are free to have their identity protected."

"But, she's our little girl, Anya. You can't tell me that you didn't want to see these two have an actual wedding," Dad said.

"Dad, I never said that was out of the question. Maybe, when all of this is over, we can have that wedding you want. You know how I feel about these things, but I would do it, because it's one day that I can give you that would make you happy. But now, Steve and I won't regret waiting if anything happens before that can happen," I told him.

"Where's Barnes?" Dad asked suddenly.

"Not here, Clint. He's with the Runaways and Young Avengers at our place," Steve said finally speaking up.

"You let him talk you into this?" Dad asked. "Why would you let him make you think this was a good idea, Steve?"

"He's right, that's why. You made the same point, Clint. If anything happened to either of us, how would we feel if we wasted the time. I'm the biggest example of waiting too long. I wasn't going to do it again," Steve told Dad.

Mom just smiled at him before getting up and hugging us both.

"Welcome to the family, Steve. He'll get over this," Mom whispered to Steve while she hugged him.

"Don't hold your breath," Dad mumbled and I started laughing, remembering how well my new hearing aides worked for him.

"You will if you don't want to alienate your daughter, Clinton," Mom said.

Dad and I winced at the same time from Mom using the full form of his first name. We both knew she meant business. Lila jumped into Steve's arms.

"Does this mean you're my brother now, too?" Lila asked.

"Kinda," Steve said.

"Cool!" Lila exclaimed as she threw her arms around his neck.

"Cooper?" I tried to get his attention. "What do you have to say? You're the only one not saying anything."

He looked to Dad and wouldn't say anything.

"Alright, Cooper. I understand. But if you change your mind you know how to get in touch with us," I said before turning to Dad. "You know where to find us, Dad. We have to get ready for the peace talks with Stark."

 **Barton's POV:**

"Clinton Francis Barton, if you let our daughter leave this house without fixing this…" Anya started, looking at Cooper.

I looked from Anya to Cooper. My boy, trying to stay on my side of things. I wasn't being fair to him. He had a right to be okay with his sister being married if he wanted to be.

"Sophie, wait," I called out to her as her and Steve were heading back to the teleporter.

I ran after them in case they didn't hear me.

"Sophie," I started.

"I knew you'd be upset, but how could you sit back and let Cooper be stuck in the middle, Dad?" she asked me.

"You need to give me time to adjust here, Sophie. You got engaged a few months ago and all hell's broken loose since then. The last thing I expected was for you to just show up and tell me the two of you eloped, especially not with someone like Steve Rogers as your fiancé!"

"Why does everyone think that I wouldn't be that spontaneous?" Steve asked, sounding offended.

"Did Barnes put you up to this?" I asked him.

"That's not the point!" Steve exclaimed defensively. "I could be spontaneous if I wanted to. It's just that I would have preferred to do this with all of you there. But I didn't want to wait and risk the regrets that either of us would have to face if the other didn't make it out of this alright, Clint."

I couldn't help but crack a smile.

"Listen, I'm sorry. Maybe you guys are right and a wedding isn't a bad thing right now," I conceded. "I just really hate that you went behind my back. I mean, come on Sophie. You and Barnes can open portals. You could have just called me and asked me to use the teleporter to come to Pym's house and I could've met you there. Did you really need to do this without telling me?"

"She didn't know until there wouldn't have been time to call you, Clint. That's my fault. Bucky and I brought the Runaways back here and she was in California on her own with Victor, working on him. She didn't know what was going on until we were in the car on the way to the clerk's office. If you want to be mad at anyone, be mad at me," Steve told me.

"Or me," Barnes said, coming through the teleporter. "I was the one who told Steve that he should stop putting it off."

"You… I might just kick _your_ ass," I said to Barnes.

Barnes smirked at me.

"Dad, if you touch Bucky, you know you'll have to go through me."

"You'd really take me on, Sophie?"

"You already know the answers to these questions."

"Fine!" I exclaimed, exasperated by the way they were with each other. "I won't kick his ass."

"Good," Sophie said simply.

"We should get back to the house, guys," Barnes said. "We need to figure out what we're going to do with the Runaways before we set up the peace talks."

"Wait," I said, stopping them. "I'll find a way to deal with this, Sophie. Just please, don't cut us out."

She smiled at me.

"Then fix things with Cooper," she said to me. "Make him see that he doesn't have to choose sides between us and we can talk."

I sighed and nodded at her.

"Fine. I will. And you let me know what's going on _before_ you go into the peace talks. I want to help. Besides, I know Nat better than anyone then maybe Barnes."

She nodded at me and the three of them left together.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five:**

 **Sophie's POV:**

We took longer than we were planning to before we got back to Stark. With the extra missions to stop Cape-Killers from capturing anti-registration rogues, we kept getting sidetracked. Finally, three weeks after my initial contact, I hacked into his computer network again, scrambling my signal every ten seconds, bouncing it all over the world.

"Sophie, I thought you forgot about me," Stark said when he saw me.

"You've been keeping us busy, Stark. For someone who wants to try to end this peacefully, you sure as hell aren't cutting back on Cape-Killers."

"Well, their targets _are_ in violation of federal law, Sophie."

"Cut the shit, Stark. I've got the info for you, so stop trying to stall me."

I gave him the location of the peace talks.

"Two hours. Don't try to be smart, Stark."

I disconnected from his server and made sure that there was no trace of me left for him to trace. Satisfied, I went back upstairs, where the Secret Avengers were waiting. Looking at Steve, I nodded in confirmation.

"It's confirmed?" he asked.

"I told him, two hours. Are you sure you're ready for this, Steve?"

"I trust my team. Everyone here has put their faith in me, even when it seemed like all hope was lost and we've pulled off some impressive feats, even if we've suffered some losses. We've done it all together, as a team. You have trusted me to lead you, even when I was at my worst. Now, I'm putting my faith and trust in you to take care of me.

"There is no better group than all of you," Steve said. "Through our ups and downs, when we've disagreed or been on the same page, it has made us stronger as a team. Nothing can take that away from us. If this is it, I can honestly say that is has been an honor to have each of you at my side, fighting for the freedoms we deserve."

Steve definitely knew how to motivate a team. We started making our move, heading into Manhattan. I still didn't like this. Steve was going in without anything, even comms. If we made a move, he would be blindsided.

 **Steve's POV:**

When it was time to meet Stark, I made my way to the meeting spot alone. Maria Hill was supposed to mediate the talks. As I entered the room, I was searched for weapons. When they were satisfied that I wasn't carrying any weapons or Sophie's tech, they let me in. The first thing I noticed was that Stark had one of his sensors that would call his Iron Man suit to him.

"I'm unarmed, here on good faith, as promised. If you want me to continue with this, I want his sensor gone and proof that he's completely unarmed like I am," I said to Hill.

"What? You don't trust me, Capsicle?" Stark asked in mock-shock.

"Get up, Stark. He's right. You put this on national television. If he walks out of here and they put it all over the media that it was because you showed up armed, you're going to have a lot of problems," Hill said.

She was worried about public perception. I was worried about the freedoms of the people. Already, I felt like I had made a mistake. I only hoped that it wasn't a mistake that couldn't be fixed.

Hill searched Stark, taking his sensor and anything that could even be considered tech that he could use as a weapon or to access a weapon. Finally, after what seemed like forever, we sat down at the table.

"What's it gonna take you to surrender, Rogers?" Stark asked, jumping straight to the point.

"A repeal of the act," I said in response. "How can any person with superhuman abilities or tech that would give them superhuman abilities be asked to surrender their freedom?"

"Why don't you ask your girlfriend?" Stark replied.

"She's not my girlfriend."

"Oh, did the Capsicle get dumped?"

"She's my _wife_ ," I said through gritted teeth, struggling to keep the urge to punch him in the mouth in check.

"Wait. What?"

"She's my wife, Stark. Sophie is my _wife_ , not my girlfriend. And if you really looked into what happened in the Sudan with her and Bucky, you'd see that as bad as it was, it could've been a lot worse if she hadn't intervened."

"Really, Rogers? You wanna play that card?"

"Actually, I do, Stark. Bucky went into a PTSD episode, brought on by the sudden appearance of some Soviet agents he's had some history with. Seeing that her partner was losing control, Sophie risked exposure to get him out of that square. We both know what kind of damage Bucky can cause when he's full-on Winter Soldier, Stark. There was no way for her to know there were bombs in that square."

"Nice story, Rogers."

"You want to accuse Sophie, who _you_ mentored, of being that reckless?"

"When it comes to Barnes? Absolutely."

He was right that she was reckless when it came to Bucky. He was just wrong in this scenario.

"Not that time, Stark."

"Get back on topic, gentlemen," Hill interrupted.

"This is on topic, Hill," Stark pointed out. "This event was the catalyst. If it wasn't for Barnes and Holden, I mean _Mrs. Rogers_ , blowing a hole the size of the U.N. in that village square, this legislation would not have been necessary."

"This is coming from the man who has leveled how many cities, and was it just one small country or were there more?" I retorted.

"And you've never destroyed anything, Cap?"

"I never claimed otherwise. But don't go acting like you haven't done the same thing Bucky and Sophie did in the Sudan. Sophie did it accidentally, trying to get Bucky away from the civilian population before he could get more out of control."

"The legislation will not be repealed, Rogers. Thank your _wife_ and best friend for that."

"How can you call these peace talks if you won't actually negotiate, Stark."

"Because we expect you and your misfits to turn yourselves in," Stark said.

Suddenly I heard a firefight outside. Turning to Stark, I saw someone who looked like Thor entering the room behind him.

 **Bucky's POV:**

"Now!" I called to Sophie over the comms.

We both opened portals into the middle of the "peace talks." Sophie tossed Steve his shield. Hill went for Sophie and a fight ensued between the two. Stark went for Steve, but I knocked him out easily without his armor. Sophie, having knocked Hill out, came over to me and Steve.

"We should get out of here. We're sitting ducks in this room," Sophie said to me.

"Guys, you missed something," Steve said to us.

Sophie and I looked to the other side of the room. It looked like Thor, but he was sparking. He was some kind of machine, short-circuited by the portals.

"It doesn't matter. Let's get the hell out of here before that thing gets back online, Steve," I said as I grabbed him since I was closer to him.

Sophie and I both went to open portals, but the Thor-thing shot out a jolt of electricity as we did.

Steve and I appeared outside. Sophie wasn't with us.

"Sophie!" I called on the comms.

There was no response.

"Sophie!"

Nothing.

"Guys, we gotta move. I've got Natasha tranquilized, but before The Vision and Rhodey's suit come back online, we need to fall back," Barton called on comms.

"Fall back!" I called into the comms.

I handed Steve his device. Together, we stepped through and entered our property. Still there was no Sophie. After doing a headcount, we'd found that Billy, Teddy, Karolina, Xavin, Sophie, and Wanda were missing. I cursed.

"We need to get the truth out there. They ambushed us!" Tommy complained.

"I can take care of that," Victor said. "I can use Sophie's computers and send a message to the media, preferably a video message from you, Captain, to tell your side of the story. Then I can search to see where they have taken the hostages."

"Let's do it," Steve said.

Half an hour later, Steve came upstairs. His video was already playing on every news channel. Ten minutes later, Victor came up.

"Billy, Teddy, Karolina, Xavin, and Wanda were all arrested," he said.

"What about Sophie?" I asked hopefully.

"She wasn't found," he said.

"Where is my daughter?" Clint demanded.

 **Sophie's POV:**

I opened my eyes and realized that my head hurt. The next thing I realized was that I had no idea where the hell I was. Standing over me was a tall blonde man.

"Who are you and what is your business in Asgard?" he asked me, holding his hammer up threateningly.

"Relax, Dude. You're Thor, aren't you?" I asked.

"How do you know who I am?"

"You know my father. You fought beside him as part of the Avengers."

"Who is this father you speak of?"

"Clint Barton."

"The Eye of Hawk?"

"Yeah, that's him."

"His only daughter is a child! You lie! You are a trickster like my brother, Loki!"

"No, I'm not! I'm telling the truth. We found out last year. Neither of us knew about each other. I was raised in a lab after my mother was abducted when she was pregnant. The Avengers captured me last year."

"Why would your father capture you?"

"I was eliminating the scientists who made me enhanced."

"Guards!"

"Wait! I don't know how I got here. My father, husband and best friend are probably really worried right now."

"What do you mean you don't know how you got here. You opened a portal!"

I was confused.

"I opened a portal?"

"Yes."

"But this is another _realm_. I've never done that before," I said as a female guard grabbed me.

"Sif, wait," he said to the guard who was forcing me to my feet.

I sparked, electricity shooting out from my arms and hands. The guard released me, looking as though she might attack me.

"What was that?" Thor demanded.

"I don't know," frantically, trying to think of what could have caused me to start sparking like that.

It was then that I remembered. I opened the portal to get out of the building. The Thor-clone shot electricity at us… and my portal dropped me in Asgard, sparking.

"Oh no," I mumbled.

"What are you speaking of Midgardian!?"

"Fucking Stark! That stupid son of a bitch tried to make a clone and fucked it up and now I'm sparking! I'm gonna fucking kill him when I get my hands on that narcissistic bastard!" I cursed, pissed off.

"Sif, leave us. I will call you if needed."

The guard left. Thor looked at me with curiosity.

"Why do you curse the name of Stark?"

"He made a clone of you, some kind of machine. When Bucky…"

"What's a Bucky?"

"Bucky Barnes? The Winter Soldier?"

"Him I have heard of. Continue."

"When we opened portals to get Steve out and away from Stark and Hill it short circuited, like all electronics do when the portals open around us. As we were trying to open portals to get out the machine shot some kind of bolt of electricity at us. It must have hit me because I wound up here and sparking instead of with my husband and best friend."

"Who are your husband and best friend?"

"Bucky is my best friend. Steve Rogers is my husband."

"The Captain got married? Good for him," Thor said with a smile on his face.

It took him a minute to get back to what I finished telling him.

"Why were you trying to save Rogers from Stark?"

I explained to Thor what happened and how there was a war of superhumans going on.

"Stark is out to take over the Earth with these laws you speak of! I will not have it!"

"It might work. Steve and I are leading a team of rogues, but things aren't always looking good. Stark has the power of the government behind him. The further this goes, the more people will come to fear anyone like me or Steve. Then who will save the world from invasions?"

"Stark is insane. He has gone too far!" Thor proclaimed. "Heimdall! Open the bifrost! I will escort… What is your name, Midgardian?"

"Sophie."

"I will escort Sophie Rogers home. Open the bifrost to Steve Rogers' location!"

 **Steve's POV:**

I was standing on the porch, not sure what to do. We knew where most of the missing team members were. But Sophie was just gone. Suddenly, a rainbow appeared in front of me. When it faded, Thor was standing in its place… With Sophie at his side. I ran to her and pulled her into my arms, kissing her.

"Clint! Bucky! Sophie's back! She's safe!" I called out before turning to Thor. "How did you end up with Sophie, Thor?"

"She opened a portal into Asgard, Rogers. Is it true you have found a bride?" Thor asked me.

"Yeah, Thor, Sophie is my wife," I replied, smiling at her.

Bucky and Clint came out and Sophie ran into their arms. Clint looked just as shocked as I did to see Thor. Bucky just looked from Thor to me.

"Bucky, I want you to meet Thor. Thor, this is my best friend, Bucky."

"The Winter Soldier? Sophie told me you were her best friend," Thor said.

"Actually, they're both my best friends," Bucky told him.

"Thor," Clint said as far as a greeting.

"Barton, is it true that this is your daughter?" Thor asked.

"Yeah," Clint said, hugging Sophie to his side. "She is my brilliant daughter who has helped create safehouses throughout the country where people who are against Stark and his laws can hide. We're completely untraceable here and at any of those properties."

"She is so young. How can she outmaneuver Stark?"

"She is very talented on her own and Stark taught her himself for a while," I told Thor.

"You know, she has very colorful language. She cursed the name of Stark quite a bit when she realized what happened to her that led her to me, that is what made me reconsider imprisoning her in the jails of Asgard," Thor said smiling.

I could only imagine the words that came out of Sophie's mouth when she realized that she was in Asgard somehow.

"How did you end up in Asgard, Sophie?"

"The electricity that the clone sent at us must have hit me, affecting my portal, but I've been sparking, too."

"What do you mean, sparking?" Clint asked, concerned.

"She electrocuted Lady Sif. Is this not normal for her?" Thor replied.

"No, it's not. She's never done that. And she's always had control of her power," Bucky told Thor. "Even when stressed out, and trust me, I've seen her when she should have lost control, she kept control."

Anya came running out of the house. Someone must have told her that Sophie was home.

"Sophie!" Anya called out to her as she ran down the stairs.

"Mom!" Sophie cried out as she ran into her mother's arms.

Clint walked over to sit with Sophie as Anya checked her for injuries. We all witnessed Sophie spark, shocking Clint, and they took her inside.

"That is not Laura. Who is this woman that Barton's daughter calls Mom?" Thor asked.

We told him what happened with Laura and who Anya was. It was better it come from us then him asking Clint.

"So now he is dating his other child's mother?" Thor asked.

"Yeah. She also teaches his children with Laura and is the resistance doctor."

"She is a woman with many talents. Barton is a lucky man."

 **Barton's POV:**

"I am," I said from the front door. "So did you come all this way just to bring my daughter home, Thor?"

"I have come to help protect the Earth from Stark's idiocy. This is insanity, to expect this registration. Why not give the forces of evil your home addresses for all he is doing with these laws?"

"Welcome to the resistance, Thor," I said to him. "Because, even though you are a god, you being here and not registering puts you in violation of the laws."

"I am the son of Odin! I do not need to be on a list! Stark does not frighten me!"

"Thor, can you help Sophie?" Steve asked.

"In what manner do you speak?"

"The sparking. Can you help calm whatever energy it is that is making her give off electric shocks?"

"I shall try for you, Captain Rogers, my old friend."

"Thank you, Thor."

Steve and Thor walked into the house together.

"What happened in that building, Barnes?"

"She got hit with electricity. We weren't that far from each other. We were opening the portals. I didn't realize she was hit until Steve and I got outside and she wasn't with us. She was opening her own portal."

His eyes looked haunted. We all knew he had been subjected to electroshock therapy over the decades.

"She seems fine. Anya says that this could be a possible progression of her abilities due to the shock the jolt of electricity gave her."

"How?"

"She already had some control over electricity, without realizing it. It's why she would shut down anything with a power source in the vicinity of her portals. The electricity running in her would overload the power source, shutting it down. Anya suspects that with the increased jolt of electricity she received today that she's going to more actively manipulate electricity, like Thor with the lightning bolts."

Bucky shivered.

"You mean this might be permanent?"

"She'll get a hold of it. You know she will. Will you be able to handle this?"

"I'll find a way for her. But Stark may not like how I deal with this if I ever get my hands on him," Bucky said with a smirk.

 **Bucky's POV:**

Things weren't easy in the days after the failed peace talks. The battles continued, only this time, public opinion was just as split as those fighting for and against the registration act. At home, things weren't much better for me.

"How is she?" I asked Steve.

"She's sleeping," Steve replied. "The last training session took a lot out of her."

"Is she improving?"

Steve showed me his arm. There were a few electrical burns. They were from Sophie, who was struggling to gain control of her new abilities, unlocked thanks to Stark's stupidity.

"There are only a few… or did the rest heal?" I asked.

"No, this is it. She is getting better, but as she gains more control, the ability is also getting stronger, Bucky."

"When do you think she'll get control? I miss her, Steve."

"I know you do, Buck. And she asks about you every day."

"But she doesn't want to see me," I said, feeling pathetic.

"She does. She just knows how you react to things like this and doesn't want to hurt you."

"I know, Steve. This is just hard. She's like my kid sister and I know she's hurting and scared but she won't let me help because of my fucking pathetic issues."

"Buck, you're not pathetic. And Sophie doesn't think you're pathetic. You're the one person she is fighting for more than anyone else right now. You are helping her, just not in the way you want to."

"Yeah, how is that?" I asked sarcastically.

"She is fighting like hell to get control of this so she can see you again. She's holding on to how much you mean to her, how much she loves you, and it motivates her every day. It motivates her more than I can sometimes because I'm there and sometimes she just wants me to leave, but I won't because I'm not letting her go through this alone. It would be different if she would let you be at her side, but since she won't, it's motivating her even when I can't. You have no idea how much just knowing you're still here, waiting for her to find her way back to you, helps her deal with this."

I looked at Steve. I knew he would never lie to me. It showed in his eyes that the situation was taking as much a toll on him as it was on me. Mentally, I kicked myself for not realizing just how hard it was for Steve to have his wife in this situation and me sulking on top of it.

"I'm sorry, Steve. I should be supporting you. You're the one who is getting the brunt of her anger and frustration and I'm sitting here whining."

"Don't worry about it, Buck."

"Why do you put up with me?"

"Why did you put up with me when I was a scrawny kid getting beat up all the time?"

 **Barton's POV:**

"Barton!" Thor called, coming up from the teleporter.

"What is it, Thor?"

Thor had been back on Earth for two weeks. With Sophie down as she adjusted to her new powers, Thor took her place, helping Steve with the team. We just had to deal with the equipment we had for the time being.

"I have good news for you, my old friend," Thor said with a smile.

"I'd like to hear some good news for a change," I told Thor.

"Follow me outside."

I followed Thor outside and Sophie was down by the barn. Thor's entrance must have masked her portal. We walked down to the barn, but as we did, Sophie disappeared into the barn. When we reached the barn, Thor had a big smile on his face as he stepped aside to let me go inside first.

"Sophie, what are you doing here? You're not supposed to leave your place right now."

She looked at me, then Thor. Thor nodded at her. She walked over to my old car, the one I hadn't had time to finish fixing up since we moved, and looked at me as she placed her hands on the hood. Her eyes flashed yellow, like lightning, and the car started… the keys were in the house.

"Restraint, Rogers. You do not want to make the vehicle explode," Thor told Sophie.

Sophie nodded at Thor, her eyes flashed yellow again, and the car turned off. I looked between the two. My jaw had dropped in shock.

"How did you do that, Sophie?" I asked.

"I had an excellent teacher," she said smiling at Thor. "Once I finally stopped fearing all the bad things that would happen if I harnessed the energy, he taught me how to channel it."

"Your daughter is a very adept student, Barton. She conquered her fear and then began her mastery," Thor said.

"Can she be touched?" I asked.

Sophie hadn't been able to be touched since the new abilities had manifested. If she got overwhelmed she would spark and give a shock to whoever had tried to touch her, sometimes leaving electrical burns. I had my fair share of them, as did Steve. We had all agreed that Barnes should be kept away given his PTSD incident in the Sudan.

"You tell me," Sophie said as she came up behind me and hugged me.

It had been too long since I had been able to hug my daughter. The tension that I hadn't even realized was constantly present, began to release. I kissed the top of her head.

"Thank you, Thor," I told the Asgardian.

"'twas nothing, old friend. It was an honor to teach such a fine warrior. She truly has the heart of a warrior, Barton, as much as any on Asgard."

"You should see her and Bucky sparring together. That'll show you what kind of warrior she is, Thor."

"Really? I'm intrigued. When can I see this spectacle?"

"Why don't we go home and let Bucky know that I'm okay?" Sophie suggested.

 **Sophie's POV:**

Dad, Thor and I went back to my house, with Cooper. Dad and Cooper stayed outside with me while Thor went inside to get Bucky. I texted Steve to bring mine and Bucky's weapons out to the front of the house.

When Bucky came to the front door he looked annoyed that the Asgardian god was forcefully encouraging him to go outside. However, when he saw that I was outside, he ran down the stairs, stopping only when he was a few feet from me. He looked at me cautiously.

"Are you okay, Soph?" he asked me.

"I'm fine, Bucky," I answered, pulling him to me in a hug. "I'm in control again, not the abilities."

I could feel him breathe a sigh of relief. We all knew that banning him from seeing me would have its toll, but we knew it would be less of a toll then sending him over the edge if I electrocuted him. I tapped him on the shoulder when Steve came outside, showing him what Steve was carrying… our weapons.

"Are you sure you're ready for that?" he asked me.

"What? I don't spar with you for a few weeks and _you_ get rusty? I mean I get it with the arm and all…" I said taunting him with a smile on my face.

"Give me the bag, Steve, and kiss your wife goodbye!" Bucky yelled at Steve.

Steve tossed us our bags. Dad, Thor, Cooper, and Steve stood back as Bucky and I got ready to spar. It felt good to put on the holsters, my quiver, to have my bow on my back, my knives at hand. My adrenaline started pumping and I got excited.

"What are they doing, Dad?" Cooper asked Dad.

"You know how in karate, you practice fighting with a partner?"

Cooper nodded at Dad.

"But we don't use real weapons. You can get really hurt like that," Cooper said.

I walked over to Cooper, wanting to make him feel better before he freaked out on Bucky.

"Do you remember what I told you about how quickly I heal, Cooper?"

He nodded at me. I pulled a knife from one of my thigh holsters. I ran it over my forearm, not making a deep cut. Cooper gasped.

"Relax, just watch," I told him.

Because it wasn't a deep cut, within a minute the cut started to close in front of him.

"Bucky and I have been doing this for a long time. It's just how we spar. I'll be fine. I promise."

I gave my brother a hug to comfort him. Dad gave me a stern look for cutting myself in front of Cooper. I shrugged at him. I went to Steve and kissed him, glad to be able to do that without having to be scared that I'd electrocute him.

"Are you gonna fight or make-out, Sophie?" Bucky called from the other side of the yard, by the tree line.

I turned to him and ran out to meet him, the knife I had used still in my hand. It was like I hadn't missed anything. I blocked and parried his blows with ease, a renewed energy in me now that I was harnessing my new ability. It was a great release. The fluidity of our movement was like a well-choreographed dance.

 **Steve's POV:**

"Rogers, your wife, she is quite feisty," Thor told me as he watched Sophie and Bucky spar. "She makes this battle seem effortless."

Sophie and Bucky had their sparring technique perfected after more than two years of working together. They could anticipate each other's every move.

"Aren't you worried that Bucky is going to hurt Sophie, Steve?" Cooper asked me.

"I know how tough your sister is, so not really, Cooper. Look at her, he's having as much trouble landing a hit on her as she is on him."

He really watched the two of them for a few minutes. Tommy looked out the window and saw Sophie and Bucky sparring.

"It's the Electric Hawk and Winter Soldier fighting!" he shouted.

Within minutes every member of the Secret Avengers was in the yard watching the deadly training session. When Tommy came out the door, Sophie took a split second and sent a spark at Tommy, hitting his arm. Her eyes flashed yellow when she did it.

"OW!" he yelped in pain.

"Maybe you may want to ask her before assigning her a code name, Tommy," I said to him, applying some of the healing serum to his arm.

"She's got to be twenty yards from me, how did she hit me?" Tommy asked me.

"You're asking me how _Clint Barton's daughter_ can hit you with accuracy from twenty yards? She _shot_ _me_ at over _500 meters_ before we ever met," I said laughing.

"You married someone who shot you, Cap?"

"We have a complicated history," I said.

"You have issues, Dude."

Thor and Clint laughed at this.

Bucky landed a punch to Sophie's shoulder. She staggered back, pulling a new knife from her thigh holster as she pulled the hand that dropped the last knife up. As Bucky came down at her with a knife, She sliced his human arm and kicked him in his chest, knocking him back. She pulled an arrow from her quiver, knocking it in her bow and let it go. It hit Bucky in his shoulder. He pulled the arrow out and lunged at her with a larger knife.

"Shouldn't we stop these two before they _actually_ kill each other?" Eli asked.

"I wouldn't get anywhere within a five yard radius of those two, Eli. They're fine," Clint said.

"Your daughter is bleeding, Barton. How is that _fine_?" Kate asked.

"Relax, Kate. Just watch," I said.

The sun was setting when Bucky and Sophie's match finally ended in a draw. They had been going at it for almost two hours.

"You weren't kidding, Barton. That was quite entertaining," Thor said.

I looked at Clint.

"What?" he shrugged at me. "He said she had the heart of a warrior. I mentioned this, he was curious."

Sophie and Bucky were laughing and hugging each other as they made their way over to us. Victor tossed them water bottles, which he had gone inside for when it looked like they were close to an end. Cooper was watching his sister and gasped in horror when he saw the blood.

"She's hurt!" he exclaimed.

I took a towel and wet it with the hose. I tossed one to Sophie and did it again, tossing the second to Bucky. They wiped themselves off.

"Look, Cooper, no injuries. I don't even have a bruise," Sophie said showing her brother that she was fine.

"You're not even sweating, Sophie," he said in amazement.

"Your sister is tough, Cooper. I wouldn't do this if she couldn't handle it," Bucky said throwing his arm around her shoulder.

It was good to see him smiling again… to see both of them smiling again. The Young Avengers and the Runaways wanted lessons from Bucky and Sophie. They wanted to learn to spar like them. They told them not that night.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six:**

 **Sophie's POV:**

"That was insane. I didn't think we'd be able to calm down the teenagers, but Thor was just as impressed by tonight," I said to Steve as we got ready for bed.

"Did you have to shock Tommy?" Steve asked me.

I smirked at him.

"He wanted to call me the Electric Hawk."

He smiled back at me and kissed me.

"I love you, Sophie."

"I love you too, Steve."

We were just about to get in bed when Dad came barging into our room.

"Sophie, I need your help at my house, quick. It's your mother."

My stomach dropped out. I didn't even say anything to Steve, I just ran out of the room and down to the teleporter, scared that she was dead or dying. I could hear Steve and Bucky coming behind me, but I ran faster than both of them. I got out of the teleporter in Pennsylvania and went straight to find her.

She was curled in the fetal position, grasping her stomach. She was sweating, and even from the door, I could tell she had a fever.

"Mom," I said in Russian. "It's Sophie. Just breathe, Mom. I got you. Can you tell me what happened?"

She shook her head.

"Where is the pain, Mom? Is it just in your stomach?"

She nodded. I picked her up and brought her downstairs to the basement, where she had some of the medical equipment we had been able to get her. I put her on monitors to get her vitals. They weren't as good as they should have been. I took an ultrasound machine and started to run it over her stomach. I found three things that concerned me, two of which were immediately life threatening. The problem was Mom was the doctor, not me. I understood the medicine, but putting it to practical use was something I wasn't really equipped for.

"Mom," I said to her in Russian. "We've got a couple of problems here and they look surgical."

I showed her the ultrasound.

"There are epidurals in the drawer to your left," Mom said to me through her pain in Russian.

"Are you kidding me, Mom? I'm not a doctor. You are."

"I can't do this, Sophie. I need you."

I took a deep breath before kicking Dad, Bucky, and Steve out of the room, locking the door behind me without saying anything. I could hear Dad freaking out outside.

"Shut up! I need to focus!" I yelled at him in Russian from inside, before turning back to my mother. "Mom, you can't talk me through this while I'm cutting into you. Let me try to get help, someone who isn't involved in either side of this war."

I took a deep breath before using the summoning spell I had been given years ago while I was on my own, on the run from the labs, before I thought I lost Mom and met Bucky. The spell was to reach a specific person, no matter where in the cosmos he was, because he made it clear I was to use it only if it was a dire emergency. No matter how bad things had been with me before I'd never used it. I couldn't think of an emergency more dire than my mom at that moment. After a few moments, he appeared in the room with Mom and me.

"Sophie, what's wrong?"

"Doctor Strange, I need your help. My mom needs surgery and she wants me to do it. I know why you wouldn't be able to do it, but can you at least help talk me through it or do anything to help me? She can barely focus, I can't count on her to talk me through operating on her."

"My specialty was neurology, Sophie… What is her problem?"

I did the ultrasound again.

"I know the basics to help her, tell me what supplies you have and I'll talk you through it."

"Thank you, Doctor Strange. I know you've been staying out of the war, but my mom isn't a superhuman. All she's done is help to treat those against Stark, but she wasn't taking care of herself. I can't thank you enough for helping me."

"Thank me after we finish, Sophie. Right now, it's time for your crash course in surgical procedures," he said to me as he handed me an epidural, showing me the best place to administer it to minimize Mom's pain.

We got started on what I knew would be a long night of surgery on Mom. I was terrified I wouldn't be good enough to save her. The only thing keeping me calm was that the Sorcerer Supreme, Doctor Stephen Strange was there helping me.

 **Steve's POV:**

Sophie unlocked the door a few hours after she locked us all out. By the time we realized it was unlocked, she had left. When Bucky and I followed Clint into the room, Anya was sound asleep on the exam table. There was a note for Clint. He didn't seem to notice.

"Clint," I said, getting his attention. "I think Sophie left you a note explaining what's going on."

He saw the note and took it. Something in his eyes changed and he just stared at Anya. I looked at Bucky.

"Go home, Steve. She's upset. I'll stay with Barton in case he needs anything or one of the kids needs something. Take care of her."

"What if she's speaking rapid-fire Russian?" I pointed out.

Bucky and Sophie had started to teach me Russian because of their habit of slipping into it without realizing it. Even though I was picking it up, I wasn't at the point where I could follow her if she was upset.

"Tell her to take a deep breath and try to remember it's you," Bucky suggested. "I think she needs you more than me right now."

I nodded and left through the teleporter. Thor was in the room when I came out in the lab at my house.

"Is Sophie alright? She seemed quite upset when she came through here. She ran upstairs," Thor said to me.

"It's her mom. I'm not sure what happened. Was everything okay here? No trouble with the Young Avengers or Runaways?" I asked him.

"We all had a grand time, Rogers. There were some revels and they all fell asleep a bit ago."

"Tell me you didn't give them alcohol, Thor… you know what, I'll deal with this later. I need to check on Sophie."

I went upstairs to find Sophie sitting at the window in our room, brushing her hair, which was still wet.

"Sophie?" I asked gently, trying to get her attention.

She looked up at me and it was easy to tell she very upset.

"What happened in that room, Sophie?"

She took a few deep breaths. After waiting a few minutes, she finally spoke.

"My mother asked me to perform surgery on her, Steve," she said, her voice quivering. "She didn't want to go to the hospital."

"What was wrong with her?"

"Apparently, Mom has been hiding the signs of renal failure. Her left kidney was dead, completely. And on top of that, her appendix burst."

"We don't have the tools you would need for those kinds of surgeries, do we?"

"No, we don't," she said looking at her hands, which were shaking as much as her voice. "She had me give her an epidural to remove her kidney and appendix. Then I had to use the healing serum to substitute for the missing supplies."

"Will she be okay?"

"Her right kidney looked fine to me, and the person I called in to help me agreed."

"Who did you call in to help you? Why didn't Barton get a notice?"

"I can't tell you that, but I blocked the signal from going to Dad's phone. This person needs to stay anonymous. He did me a _huge_ favor just coming to help me, I couldn't let _anyone_ know he was there."

Something told me there was more to what she was saying, but she wasn't ready to say anything.

 **Bucky's POV:**

Things got more stressful. Stark, enraged at the backlash he was getting for ambushing Steve, was doubling his effort to try to find the Secret Avengers. His side had gone as far as enlisting supervillains to find any superhuman who was considered rogue. This made the target sign on our backs bigger.

Barton pulled out of everything having to do with the resistance. It turned out Anya miscarried when Sophie had to do surgery on her, his house was now only being used as a safehouse when we needed it. Sophie was focused on training the Young Avengers and Runaways if she wasn't in the lab, making new weapons, new tech, anything that could help us in our fight.

I couldn't take it anymore. I went after Stark directly. I broke into his house, getting past his security team easily. Finding him in his office, I cornered him, barricading us in.

"You've got balls, Barnes. I wasn't sure, considering Sophie is usually the one who covers for you," he said to me.

"You're one to talk, hiding in your high security building, Stark."

"What do you want?"

"What's it gonna take to put an end to this? Release the superhumans and put this registration shit to rest."

"I'd say your death would be a good start, Barnes," Stark replied.

I was worried he would say that.

"You have the nerve to come in here after everything _you've_ done? Sophie, she was distressed. She could be reformed. But _you_ , you're a killer, Barnes. A cold-blooded killer."

"I'm cold-blooded, Stark? The people I've killed were mostly while I was under _mind control_. While I've had control of myself I have never intentionally targeted women and children. But _you_? _You_ are holding how many teen and women superhumans in your prisons? What is _your_ excuse, Stark?"

"Protection. From people like you. From people like Sophie Holden… excuse me Sophie _Rogers_ who don't know how to ensure the safety of the civilian population in an emergency."

"That's just your excuse, Stark and you know it! You started having issues with Sophie before the incident in Sudan."

"You know what, maybe I did. Seeing how careless she was when it came to you being around, I started to have a problem. When I see there are people with the kind of power that you and Barton's daughter wield, and then I see that you can't keep your heads on straight, I have a problem, Barnes. That girl should be in school, hanging out with friends, not going on black ops missions with you where she puts her life at risk to keep you safe. She's eighteen. Instead, she's married, a fugitive from the federal government, and running around with a bunch of rogues who don't want to comply with the laws of the land. And both you and her _husband_ are encouraging it! She had such a bright future and you're destroying it, Barnes."

"You don't know anything about Sophie. You never understood her."

"Maybe not, but do you? Can you say that you understand her, Barnes?"

"Do you really want to keep this fight going, Stark? Think of the casualties to the people who are supposed to be _protecting_ this world! We can't safely do what we need to without some kind of autonomy!"

"What do you know about any of this, Barnes? What are you even doing here? Why aren't you with your buddies?" Stark asked, changing the subject, clearly getting frustrated.

"I'm trying to put an end to this insanity, Stark. You don't realize what you're costing everyone, the people who have vowed to protect the world, because you're acting like a dog with a bone."

"Your group of rogues are the ones causing the problems, Barnes."

"If I were you, I wouldn't say that to Barton. I don't think even Natasha could save you from him if you did."

I opened a portal, knowing I was frying every circuit in his building. I punched him so hard in the face with my cybernetic arm it knocked him out with one hit and I was satisfied knowing that it was going to leave a bruise and that I more than likely broke a few bones in his face on impact. Finally, I got closer to the portal and left, going home before I sank to his level and just killed him while he was unconscious.

 **Barton's POV:**

I had been spending most of my time with Anya and the kids. Anya's emergency had been a rude awakening. I had been so preoccupied getting back in the fight, I didn't see the signs that she was sick and in pain. What made me feel worse about it, she was still taking care of everyone as one of her organs died inside of her. It made me realize that I needed to take better care of her, Lila, Cooper, and Nathaniel. If I didn't, I could lose them all.

Needing to make sure that Anya was okay, I started bringing her to an outside doctor. We were coming out of the office with Nathaniel in a stroller when Stark landed in front of us in his Iron Man suit. I wanted to kill him. He was making all of our lives a living hell.

"Leave me alone, Stark," I growled at him.

Anya looked tired and I wanted to get her home. Nathaniel was asleep in the stroller.

"Is that any way to greet an old friend, Legolas?" Stark asked, the faceplate on his helmet lifting.

I noticed severe bruising and what looked like a broken nose and cheekbone. Knowing it wasn't easy to get near him, I could think of only two people who could get to him that easily, but only one with a metal fist to do that kind of damage in one hit. Bucky. He just moved higher up in my book.

"I'm not your friend. Just leave me the hell alone."

"Why aren't you hiding under a rock like your daughter and her friends, Barton? What changed?"

"Stark, get the hell away from me, before you regret it," I snarled at him. "I don't want anything to do with you. And _officially_ , you have no jurisdiction over me. I don't have superhuman abilities or the technology that would give me those abilities. Now get the fuck away from me, because if you wake up my son, I will make sure that this war ends with _your_ death right here, right now."

I pushed past Stark and put Anya in the front seat of the car before putting Nathaniel in his car seat. Knowing he was going to follow me, I put in a call to Steve, asking him to get Stark away from me as I drove away.

 **Sophie's POV:**

I appeared down the block from Stark. I could see his suit start sparking. As I extended my hand, the sparks grew bigger, and as they grew bigger, I knew they would be getting hotter. Stark ejected himself from his suit. He began to look around to find me.

"I see you Rogers!" he called out to me.

"I'm not hiding, Stark!" I called back.

"You really want to fight with me?" He said, coming closer to me, showing me what Bucky had done to him.

"You have no idea how badly," I said with a smile on my face.

The days of my playing nice with Stark were long gone. As soon as he and Natasha became my torturers, they became enemies. No warm emotions remained in me for either of them.

Stark and I engaged in a hand to hand fight. He was no match for me. Even without my abilities, I was an expert combatant. He realized he was no match for me and pushed a button on his sensor. His suit started to seek the sensor out. I put my hand up, pulling all the electrical currents out of the Iron Man suit.

"I don't think so, Stark. Can't fight a girl in a fair fight?"

Natasha appeared and Stark ran off.

"You think you can take me, Sophie?"

"Let's find out, traitor."

We started fighting. I could see she had power restraints. I used my new powers and fried their circuits. As quickly as she was trying to subdue me, I was coming back around, matching her. Finally, with a kick to her chest, I knocked her halfway down the block. Before she could get back to her feet, I threw two of the throwing knives she gave me. One landed in her shoulder, the other in her stomach. She retreated and I went home, not caring that I had just seriously injured my father's former best friend.

 **Stark's POV:**

Romanoff had to be picked up from her last fight with Sophie. Not only had she physically taken me on, but then she took Natasha on when I left, killing the power restraints, and nearly Natasha in the process. When she was brought back to base she was bleeding freely from wounds made by throwing knives she had given Sophie for Christmas last year.

"Stark," Hill said, coming into my office.

"What do you need?"

"Have you had any luck finding Rogers' base of operations?"

I sighed. I may have been used to being the smartest person in the room, but that was until I had met Sophie. She gave me a run for my money.

"Have I brought you to Mr. and Mrs. Capsicle, Hill? No? Then that would be your answer."

"We need to find them. As long as Rogers is out there, leading the resistance, we're going to have trouble, Stark."

"I would think you should be more worried about Mrs. Capsicle, you know the one who keeps hacking us and keeping us from finding them?"

"Maybe you taught her _too_ well, Stark."

"She knew more than you would think on her own. I just focused her, Hill. Sophie is a brilliant mind and could be so much more than a fugitive."

"She's a felon."

"Look at some of the people you've brought into this, Hill. Before the registration the Avengers would have been hunting them to put them in jail for the rest of their miserable lives or worse. Now we're employing them to find our former teammates who don't want to join the registration? Rogers and his group of rogues may not be right, but are we right glorifying these guys?"

"They're following the law. That's the priority right now."

I turned away from her, back to my computer. Hill left my office and I went back to work. Putting an end to the resistance, getting all those with superhuman abilities united was the priority. A few hours later I checked on Romanoff.

"Any luck on your end finding Barton?" I asked her.

"None. He's off the grid completely. They all are. I don't see how she can keep them in this country and off the grid this completely. There's nothing, school records for the kids, bank statements, utilities, nothing."

"What about Sophie's mother?"

"There are random medical records, but they're literally scattered around the country. Nothing is centralized, so I can't even estimate if it's anywhere near where he's living."

"What are the medical records for?"

Romanoff hit a few keys.

"We've got check-ups for kidney removal surgery, an appendectomy, and…"

"And what, Romanoff?"

She looked up at me.

"And a DNC post-miscarriage, Stark. Anya had a miscarriage."

No wonder Barton hated me and wanted nothing to do with any of us. His girlfriend had lost her appendix, kidney, and their baby. It also explained why Barnes suddenly came to me trying to work things out. He knew what all of this had cost Barton already. And my reaction set him off, which was why he attacked me before disappearing.

"Where were the surgeries done?"

Romanoff hit a few keys.

"With the exception of the DNC, there is no record of the kidney or appendix being removed anywhere."

"You don't think they refused to get her treated, do you?"

"I'm not sure what they're thinking other than staying out of prison right now, Stark. But Anya is the only one with a medical degree."

 **Natasha's POV:**

The law is what it is. That's all there is to it. Barton wouldn't see that from the beginning of the registration. He blindly followed Steve Rogers and the rogues, getting involved with the resistance when he didn't have to, even when I told him that it would be better if he just stayed out of it and convinced his daughter to sign up with the registration.

He told me I was a fool. After all we had been through, he called _me_ a _fool_ because I told him that right now, the registration was the best thing. It would force everyone with superhuman abilities to be trained and accounted for. Even after I helped him with Sophie, he wouldn't listen to me.

"And now your family is falling apart, Clint. You should have listened to me before this all got out of control."

I was brought out of my thoughts when security brought someone to me since Stark was in the field. It was Peter Parker, Spider Man, our most valuable asset. He looked uncomfortable being escorted to me, we'd had our run-ins before, some good, some not so much, but he was doing the right thing. It was a lot more than I could say for those I once called friends.

"What is it Peter?"

"I needed to talk to Tony."

"He's not gonna be back for a few hours. You can talk to me about whatever you need to tell him. Maybe I can help you, if not, I'll tell him later and he can come check-in with you after."

Peter looked nervous, more than when he unmasked himself to the media and by default, the country.

"No, that's okay, Agent Romanoff," he replied. "I'll give Tony a call later and find out when is a better time for us talk."

Peter left and suddenly, I felt like our most valuable asset was going to become our most dangerous enemy.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven:**

 **Barton's POV:**

Since I had pulled out of everything, I had given Kate my bow and quiver, granting her permission to use the name Hawkeye. It was the final sign that I wasn't intending on going back into action. For Christmas, Anya and I decided to rent a cabin in Montana with the kids, using one of my covers. We were planning on staying from a few days before Christmas until after my birthday. We had invited Sophie, Steve, and Bucky for Christmas and New Years', but they said no. Sophie wasn't up to the festivities.

On Christmas, I got up and put out the gifts that Anya and I had gotten for Cooper, Lila and Nathaniel, who was nearly two years old. I let Anya sleep in because she had started running a fever on Christmas Eve. By the time the kids got up I was making breakfast. After getting them settled, I took a tray in to Anya. She still looked sick and frail.

"How are you feeling, Anya?" I asked.

"Tired. The fever hasn't broken, Clint."

"Do you need a doctor?"

"Not today."

"Anya…"

"I haven't been able to celebrate Christmas in nearly twenty years, Clint. Please, I don't want to ruin this, especially not for the kids. If I'm still feeling like this tomorrow, you can take me to a doctor."

I sighed. She was always putting everyone else ahead of her. But Anya was just as stubborn as I was.

"Fine, but only if you don't get any worse. If you start to get worse, we're going to the hospital, I don't care if it's Christmas. I think the kids will be more traumatized if they lose you then if they have to go to the hospital to take care of you."

She nodded at me, giving in.

"Thank you. For everything. You've taken such good care of me since you found me, and I can never repay you for that. I love you."

"You don't have to repay me, Anya. I love you, and I _want_ to take care of you."

"It's not your fault, Clint. Me getting as sick as I did. I ignored the signs that were in front of me, I didn't tell you," Anya said, taking my hand and changing the subject.

I kissed her forehead. How could she not blame me? We've been living in isolation because I decided to join the Secret Avengers. She agreed to become their doctor. And nobody noticed she was in pain.

"Anya, I should have seen it…"

"You couldn't see it if I wasn't going to allow you to. I hid the signs from everyone around me, hoping I would get better on my own. I'm sorry. It was stupid. I just didn't want to put stress on anyone with the possibility that I may need to go to a hospital. We would have had to go through so much to protect ourselves to do that…"

"Screw that, Anya. I would have taken you without the precautions. You are more important to me."

"Then Sophie?"

It was a low blow.

"I can't choose between you and Sophie."

"But you did, Clint. When we walked away from the Secret Avengers, you chose me. I let you because you were grieving the loss of our unborn child, but don't forget that we have Sophie who still needs us. She may be an adult and married, but with everything going on with superhumans, she needs us to help protect her and those she loves."

I looked at her and knew she was right. I had kept my distance from the Secret Avengers. When everything happened, I pulled away from Sophie and the entire resistance, shutting myself off from the world with Anya and the kids. But Sophie was our daughter and she couldn't just walk away from the resistance like I did. Her husband and best friend were at the center of it. Honestly, so was she. Anya was right, she did need all the help she could get.

"Did you know you were pregnant, Anya?" I finally asked her.

"No," she said looking away. "I didn't want to think I could be, considering I could feel my kidney failing. The signs, other than the missed period, could all be attributed to the appendicitis or renal failure."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I thought I would be okay."

Cooper came to the door. He was excited.

"Can we open our presents, yet, Dad?" he asked.

My son sounded so different than he did last Christmas. His voice was changing. I was worried that he would be miserable, but it was like he was trying not to let everything get to him. It was hard to believe it had only been five months since his mother died. It seemed like it was so much longer. The time seemed like years, Sophie and Steve's whirlwind romance, her arrest, their eloping, Anya's issues, it all seemed like it happened over years, not months.

"Sure, Cooper. We'll be out in just a minute and you can open them then."

"Awesome!"

I helped Anya to stand up. Carrying her breakfast tray outside, I sat her down to eat while the kids tore into their Christmas presents. I helped Nathaniel open his. It didn't seem fair, how normal everything seemed, when in reality all of our worlds had been turned upside down in the last year.

 **Sophie's POV:**

"Give me his bow, Kate!" I snapped at the Young Avenger.

"He gave it to me!"

"You can have it back, I just need to borrow it for now!"

"For what? I'm Hawkeye now!"

I wanted to strangle her, but I was trying to remember she was younger and weaker than me.

"I need to answer this and it's calling for Hawkeye!"

"I'm Hawkeye!"

"My brother and sister are in the middle of this! It's _not_ about you and you are _not going_ , Kate!"

"Kate," Tommy said from the doorway, "give her the bow and quiver. This is Cooper and Lila in danger here."

"I'm Hawkeye, Tommy. The letter says for _Hawkeye_ to go," Kate argued.

"Yeah, and it was left at the cabin my father was staying at. It was meant for him, but I'm not going to let him go. So give me the bow and quiver, Kate!"

Kate shoved the bow and quiver at me. I opened a portal, leaving me a mile from the location mentioned in the letter. Someone named Trickshot had my brother and sister. He wanted a confrontation with Dad, but Dad hadn't been in fighting shape since Mom miscarried. I had gone to deliver a message to the cabin for Mom and Dad while they waited for her meds when I found the letter pinned by arrow to the door. Dad didn't know yet. I was going to try to get Cooper and Lila back before he found out.

I made my way to the location. Scouting it, I saw Cooper and Lila. Lila looked fine, Cooper was hurt. The anger started to boil inside of me. I shot a volley of arrows from the front of the house, quickly using the cover of the trees to get to the back, where I snuck inside to the kids. I untied Lila and handed her the healing serum.

"I need you to put this on Cooper's cuts, Lila. Can you do that?" I asked her as I untied Cooper.

She nodded at me and started spreading the serum on our brother.

"Stay here and tell Cooper I'm here," I told her. "Hold onto this. When I tell you to, push the button and the two of you will be taken back to the cabin."

I walked to the front room as Trickshot walked back in. He looked at me in shock.

"You're not Hawkeye. Who the hell are you?"

"I could ask you the same thing, kidnapping kids."

"You have Hawkeye's bow. How?"

"Why should I answer that?"

"I want Hawkeye!" he said as he lunged at me.

The two of us wound up fighting and he was better than I gave him credit for. He landed a blow to the side of my jaw that made me bleed for a minute. I spit the blood out and watched the light go off in his head as he realized I was enhanced when I started to heal in front of him.

"What are you?" he asked me.

"What are you doing with those children?"

"They're my brother's. I wanted to lure him here!"

 _Brother?_ Dad had a _brother_? I knocked Trickshot out, going back to the other room. Cooper was coming around thanks to the healing serum.

"Sophie!" he said, looking relieved to see me. "What's going on? Who was that guy?"

"Never mind, Cooper. Here," I said handing him Dad's bow and quiver. "Bring these back to Dad tell him to get them back to Kate."

"What's going on?" Cooper asked.

"I'm not sure, Cooper. Just…"

I felt a sharp pain in my lower back. I didn't let on to Cooper and Lila that something was wrong.

"Aunt Nat!" Lila exclaimed.

"Lila, push the button!"

Lila pushed the button and she and Cooper disappeared. I turned, forcing myself to struggle with the drug in my system, to face Natasha.

"Where'd you send them, Sophie?"

"Away from you."

"You need to come with me."

She went to grab me and I let off a bolt of electricity that knocked her off her feet. She hit her head and didn't get back up. I pulled the dart out of my back. Making my way out of the house, I ran into an enhanced I had only heard about before… Deadpool. It was then that I knew that Stark had to be really desperate.

"You must be the electrifying pain in the ass," he said, looking at me. "Do you want to make this fun for me or are you going to come with me?"

I went to open a portal and Deadpool pulled a gun. Before I could open the portal, my mind still struggling to work past the drugs, the bullet hit me in my chest and there was nothingness.

 **Stark's POV:**

"She's not going to give us any intel, Hill. Don't bother asking her."

"How did she survive? Deadpool hit her point-blank in the chest."

"Advanced regeneration and healing. It's some of the data we already had on her."

"We need to use her to find the others."

"It won't work, she won't give them up."

"So what do you suggest, Stark?"

"Maybe set a trap? Lure them to try to rescue her again."

 **Barton's POV:**

Sophie had been missing again since just before my birthday. Lila and Cooper told me about the man who came and took them, how Sophie rescued them, telling them to use the teleporter to come back to me when Lila saw Natasha. That meant that Sophie was back in custody. That was bad enough. But after talking to Cooper, I was more worried, worried enough that I took them all back home immediately.

Trickshot, the Trickshot that had taken my kids, was my older brother. We had been on the outs for a long time and I hadn't expected to see him anytime soon, let alone find out that he had kidnapped my kids. Sophie found out they were missing before I did, so she went after them, which is where Natasha found her, but it made me wonder, would Natasha have arrested me if I had gone instead.

"You're thinking too much," Anya said, pulling me out of my thoughts.

"I can't stop thinking about the situation with Barney."

"Has anyone seen any sign of him?"

"Nothing. There's no record of his arrest and he's just in the wind again."

"He won't be able to find us here, Clint."

I nodded, knowing she was right.

"I know; it's just that the _timing_ bothers me. He shows up, takes Cooper and Lila, and when Sophie goes after them Natasha is there to arrest her? Something is off here, Anya."

"I know, and I'm worried about Sophie, but I'm glad that Cooper and Lila are alright. Sophie is an adult, we'll figure this out. If anything had happened to the kids, I don't think either of us would have forgiven ourselves for deciding to rent that cabin."

"Could he somehow have gotten involved with Stark's side of things? Did he even know who Sophie was?"

"The only way we can find out, Clint, is if we find him."

"I never even told Sophie about Barney. How do I explain this to her when we get her home?"

"Just tell her the truth. That's all that will matter."

She was right, I just didn't know what to do in the meantime. I felt helpless.

"Anya… I think I need to…"

"Rejoin the fight, Clint? I knew you would go back. I was waiting to see how long you needed before rejoining your team."

"You're not mad at me?"

"That you want to fight for the protection of people like _our daughter_? How could I be? It's who you are, Clint Barton. You are a fighter, a protector, and I would never try to change that about you. It's how we fell in love."

"I love you, Anya," I said as I pulled her to me and kissed her.

"I love you, too."

Things were so different with Anya then Laura. This would have been a huge fight with Laura. I felt guilty because of what Laura did, but Anya _did_ love me unconditionally as I was.

 **Bucky's POV:**

"Hey, Anya, how are you holding up?" I asked coming through the teleporter.

Barton had gone to my house to work with Steve, asking me to stay with Anya and the kids to make sure there were no problems after the kidnapping. Anya was sitting at the computer in the basement, Nathaniel in the playpen behind her.

"I'm… I'm not sure, Bucky."

"What' s wrong?"

"It's the situation with Barney."

"What about it?"

"My parents died when I was eighteen in a plane crash, but my grandmother had a brother. I've been trying to figure out what happened to him. I'm trying to figure out if Sophie and I really are the last of our line."

"So what's wrong?"

"I'm having issues accessing any information about my family."

That wasn't normal. People could research their families and others easily in this age.

"How are you searching?"

"I started by using my mother's birth name, but it comes up blank, as if my family never existed."

"Let me try. Why don't you give me your grandmother's name? Maybe if we go back that extra generation it might help?"

"Rebecca… Rebecca Proctor."

"Is that her maiden name?"

"No, it was…" she started, looking at me in shock.

"What was it, Anya?"

"My grandmother's name was Rebecca Barnes, Bucky."

She couldn't mean, could she? I typed in the name, searching for my sister, starting the search there. I found her marriage license, which changed her name to Rebecca Proctor. Now it was my turn to go into shock. Anya was my sister's granddaughter. That meant Sophie was her great-granddaughter, my great-grandniece.

"What did you find, Bucky?"

"You and Sophie are my family, Anya. Rebecca was my sister."

"I don't remember Mom ever telling me about an uncle."

"My sister wasn't even married when I 'died' so your mother never would have met me."

"I can't believe that we're…"

"Family?"

"It's hard to believe, you look younger than me," Anya said with a nervous laugh.

"I already treated you both like my family. I just never expected it to be true. I always thought the only reason I was so protective of Sophie was because of how much she acted like Steve after his mother died. I didn't realize some of the stubbornness reminded me of my sister, I don't think I could handle seeing it after all these years."

"You became family to me as soon as I saw you with Sophie. Seeing how much she cared about you, how much you cared about her, the way the two of you would risk everything for each other, how could I not accept you as family? You took better care of her then I could for most of her life because of our circumstances. I'm glad that she had you for that time. It helped her become so much stronger than she already was. You don't know how much that meant to me, especially when I found out that she thought I was dead."

I laughed and felt a little uncomfortable.

"What's so funny?"

"It's just after we were captured by the Avengers last year, every time that Sophie and I spent too much time together, Barton thought there was something inappropriate going on. He kept implying I was trying to sleep with her. I never was, mind you, I've always looked at her like a sister and friend, but knowing this, just makes his assumptions that much more wrong."

Anya laughed.

"Do you want to tell him, then?"

I grinned at her.

"Sure."

"It's good to have family again, Bucky."

"Yeah, it is, Anya," I said, pulling her into a hug.

 **Barton's POV:**

Things got weird after Bucky told me that Anya's grandmother was his little sister, making me realize my daughter and my girlfriend were both related to him. But I had to put it aside, because not long after he told me, I got a lead on Barney. I found out that he had found Baron Zemo, who Stark had recruiting supervillains for his cause. Once I knew who Barney was hanging around with, it didn't take me long to track them down. I grabbed the bow and quiver of arrows Sophie made for me for Christmas and made my way to them.

It was just after dark when I found the dive bar they hung out at every night. The bar was the kind of place that most people would refuse to go near, worrying about what kind of people would hang out at such a dingy, run-down joint. I, on the other hand, had no problem walking in there. In fact, I slipped in unnoticed. Once I saw where Barney was, I put an arrow through the shot glass that was in his hand. He turned in my direction and I smiled at him.

"I heard you were looking for me. Here I am. If you want me, _Trickshot_ , and you have the balls, meet me outside alone," I said, slipping out as quickly as I slipped in.

He didn't wait long to come after me. I led him on a chase, away from the bar his buddies were at, away from anywhere Stark might have spies, so we could be alone. When I was sure we were good, I turned toward him, an arrow already knocked in my bow.

"Give me a good reason not to put this through your heart," I said to him.

"You don't have the balls to, Kid. You would've already done it if you did."

"You don't know me anymore, Barney. What you did, when you took my kids, who were you working with? What was the point?"

"Why do you think there was a point other than getting your attention?"

"Because Black Widow and Deadpool, both part of the pro-registration forces, were waiting there. Why, Barney?"

"What makes you think I know anything?"

I shifted my aim, letting the arrow go, taking part of his ear with it.

"Wrong answer. Tell me what I want to know or the next one will be in the family jewels."

Barney looked scared because I already had another arrow ready and aimed. He knew how good my aim was.

"Fine! I wanted to get to you, teach you a lesson, but these registration people told me they'd let me do it without going to jail if I signed up on the registry and didn't kill you. They said if I let them take you and the kids, they'd let me do other things too, that I'd get paid for it. Looks like the tables turned and _you're_ the criminal again, Clint."

"Why did they want me and my kids?"

"To lure some superhuman and her husband. They said if they caught the two of them, they'd be able to squash the resistance."

I let the arrow go, essentially nailing his foot to the ground. Barney yelled out in pain.

"What the fuck did you do that for?!"

"That superhuman they wanted you to help lure out to capture, is the one who went after my kids, Barney. She's my _daughter_. And thanks to you, Iron Man, Black Widow, and Maria Hill have her again. They tortured her the last time they had her," I snarled at him. "You better hope that she doesn't get tortured like she did the last time she got arrested, Barney. Because if she does, there's nowhere you'll be able to hide from me when I come to kill you for what she goes through."

I shot him in his thigh and used the teleportation device Sophie had created to get us out of the field quickly to get home, furious that my brother was so stupid.

 **Steve's POV:**

Every day that we didn't find Sophie, my mind couldn't help but worry the worst was happening to her. I didn't know what happened to her the first time she was in custody, but she wouldn't talk about it, so it had to be really bad. The way she would wake up screaming from her nightmares, it made me want to take Stark out for hurting her.

Unfortunately, I had let things slide too much trying to find her. It had come time. We needed to find our missing comrades. Wanda, Billy, Teddy, Karolina, and Xavin had been in custody for too long. Thor had returned to Asgard, with promises that he would keep an eye out in case we needed his help again. Barton returned to the Secret Avengers and Bucky had a renewed sense of passion, finding out that Anya and Sophie were Becca's descendants.

We had just found out where Wanda, Billy, Teddy, Karolina, and Xavin were because they had been moved to a few different locations in an effort to keep us from getting to them. They were being moved from the prison they had been in to 42, the prison for superhumans in the negative zone. Once they reached 42, it would be almost impossible to break them out, so we needed to break them out before they could get them to the portal on Riker's Island.

"Does everyone know what their part is?" I asked.

The Secret Avengers nodded back at me. I could tell that some of them were still in shock that this was taking priority over Sophie. It should have been priority long ago.

"Then let's go. We hit them fast and hard. We get our people back and get out of there before they can call for back-up. Hopefully, because we haven't made any attempts before now, Stark will think we're focused on finding Sophie instead of trying to get the others back."

We all grabbed our gear and made our way out. It was time to get our team back… as many of them as we could.

When we got to the location we were going to ambush the transport, we had just enough time to get into position. In the distance, I could see the bus coming.

"Team one, transport is almost in range. Get ready," I said to Bucky and Barton, who, as the best shots on the team were going to disable the vehicle.

"Gotcha, Cap," Clint replied.

A minute later, the tires on the bus blew as Bucky and Clint fired on the vehicle.

"Team two, go!" I called to Hope and Scott.

"Team three, get ready!" I called to the team of Young Avengers and Runaways.

And I came out with Bucky and Clint at my side. All teams converged on the bus, fighting our way past the guards. Tommy, being the quickest of us all, got onto the bus and started freeing the others. Suddenly, the fight changed.

Wanda and Billy's powers erupted from them, having been restrained for so long. The guards were completely knocked out. Suddenly, Scott started shouting.

"We need to get the hell out of here! The bus is about to blow from all this excess energy!"

We all started making our way as far from the bus as we could before it blew. When we were far enough away the explosion wouldn't cause interference, we used the teleporters to get back to the safehouse.

 **Barton's POV:**

We had gotten back to the safehouse after getting Billy, Teddy, and the girls before they were transferred to the negative zone prison, 42. Anya was waiting to give medical attention to the team and our newly freed teammates. Tommy, however, wouldn't leave Billy's side.

"I've been worried about you, Billy. Electric Hawk got captured again, and Hawkeye retired, giving Kate his bow, quiver, and name, then came back. Thor was here for a while, Man, and that was cool, but I couldn't believe how crazy everything was without you here."

"I missed you too, Tommy," Billy said.

The two boys hugged. Anya checked Billy and found nothing majorly wrong with him, minor cuts and bruises. When she cleared him and Teddy, the three boys went off on their own.

"How are you holding up, Clint?"

"I'm fine, Anya."

"How are you doing, working with Bucky, now that you know the truth about our family?"

"I guess we're okay."

At this point, Bucky walked in.

"Anya, are you busy?" he asked.

"What do you need?"

"My arm feels a little… off. Can you check it out?"

"I don't know Sophie's work…"

"I meant my right arm," he said smiling at her.

"Oh, sure, Bucky. Come in."

I stepped aside as she started feeling his arm, moving it around. When she was satisfied with her exam, she took a heating pad and wrapped it around his upper arm.

"Just relax with that for a few minutes, Bucky. You're fine, just a little tense."

"Wouldn't a muscle relaxant do the same thing?" I asked.

"Not for him. It would metabolize out of his system before it could affect him. The heat is better."

"I wasn't interrupting anything, was I?" Bucky asked.

"No," Anya answered. "I was just asking Clint how things are going now that you two know that you're my granduncle."

"I'm hoping that this wiped any thought that I'm after Sophie from his mind, but other than that, I think we're pretty much the same," Bucky answered.

"It's a little weird, I'll admit, but yeah, I guess we are the same."

"I'm glad," Anya said.

At this point, Steve came downstairs.

"What is it, Cap?" I asked.

"Billy just did some tracking on Sophie."

"Where is she?" Bucky asked.

"42 in the negative zone."

"Shit," I said. "Now what do we do?"


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight:**

 **Stark's POV:**

Peter and I had just entered 42. Romanoff had told me she wasn't sure he was still completely on our side. So, as a show of faith, I brought him to the prison to give him a look at how those who refused to follow the law were being treated. I watched him take in the details, hoping to see that each superhuman's cell was specifically to their needs.

I wasn't sure what to make of his reactions, but I agreed with Romanoff. His loyalties seemed questionable to say the least. It was a shame too, because he would be harder to deal with if he were to leave our side of things and join the resistance. Technically, he wouldn't be in violation of any laws. Spider Man had registered his identity with the government. I wasn't sure what we would have to do.

One of the worst things possible on this tour happened just before I was going to bring Peter back to Manhattan… Sophie was being brought, by way of stretcher, from an interrogation back to her cell. I hated having to do it, but being put in charge of everything, I had to make the tough calls. We needed the resistance to end. But Sophie, we had new power restraints on her, she was shackled to the stretcher, and her injuries were obvious.

"That's Captain America's fiancée, isn't it, Tony? Clint Barton's daughter? What are you guys doing to her here? She looks like she went five rounds with Colossus!"

"Actually, she's the Capsicle's wife, Peter."

"Even worse, Tony! What are you doing to her? Barton and Rogers were your friends! How can you so easily do this to her, someone so important to them?"

"You don't understand, Peter. She's one of the most dangerous superhumans out there, and she's grown stronger since the last time we had her in custody. Before she became an Avenger, she was an assassin, going around the world killing scientists, trained by the Winter Soldier himself. So think about it, her primary abilities are some kind of mix of the Super Soldier serum in Captain America and whatever they did in those experiments to make the Winter Soldier enhanced, plus she has control over fire, can open portals with said fire, shorted out electronics whenever she opened portals near anything with an electrical current, and just added control of electricity to her arsenal. If we don't use the power dampeners on her, she will get out of the shackles and out of this prison. Add on top of it she's a bit of a genius, able to build technology that can rival mine, and that makes her even more dangerous to the outside world, Peter."

"Are you telling me that even if the resistance ends, you're not going to let her go?"

"That's up in the air, Peter. But I can tell you her interrogations will stop."

Sophie started to stir at that moment and she looked me in the eye.

"Do you want to tell me where your husband and best friend are Rogers?"

"Go fuck yourself with a sandpaper glove, Stark," she said, her voice coarse. "I'll make you pay for this."

Her head collapsed from exhaustion, which was caused by a mix of the power dampeners and the interrogations. Part of me was too pissed off to care. All she had to do was tell us what we wanted and the interrogations would end, but she refused, no matter what we did.

"She really hates you, Tony," Peter said, getting my attention again.

"Well, she's not the only one who does right now. Her and Bucky Barnes were responsible for the incident in the Sudan, Peter, the one that led to the Superhuman Registration Act. He started tearing the village square apart and then she set off the bombs by using her portal, blowing it to pieces. Initially, we just wanted her to give him up. Now that she's been out and with the resistance, we want Captain America too."

Peter went silent again, leaving me to wonder if he would stay loyal to the cause.

 **Romanoff's POV:**

The fight got out of control. We were taking on the resistance and during the fight, Stark called in Ragnarok, the Thor-clone he had lying in wait during his failed "peace" talks with Rogers. Rogers and his group of rogues were fighting hard, our former friends now our enemies, and it wasn't easy for any of us to gain ground over the other. We knew each other too well from all the time we'd spent working together.

Suddenly, Ragnarok started acting… off. And that is when things went from out of control to disasterous. Bill Foster, aka Goliath, was in a state of growing to his superhuman height. While he was in transition, Ragnarok shot a blast of electricity at Goliath's chest… That went right through him. As his body, which was still in Goliath mode, fell to the ground everyone stopped fighting. We were all in shock. The clone wasn't supposed to do that.

When Ragnarok turned to the rest of the resistance, Sue Storm, of the Fantastic Four, surrounded them, creating an invisible barrier. That barrier protected the resistance from meeting the same fate as Goliath. Reid Richards looked at his wife in disbelief that she protected essentially our enemies. To him, things were very black and white. Stark called for a retreat, possibly because before the registration act caused this war of superhumans, Bill Foster was friends with a lot of us… on both sides of this fight. So we left as Captain America and his team tried to figure out what to do with Bill. His death was going to cause a lot of problems.

 **Stark's POV:**

The media found out that not only had a hero who had been underground with Captain America been killed, but he had been killed by a creation of mine and Reed's. They were eating us alive, wanting to know if this was the standard protocol, to kill former heroes who didn't want to register. They wanted to know what other dangerous weapons the two of us were working on. It was a nightmare.

Johnny Storm was in the hospital after being attacked at a nightclub. Sue was spending almost all her time with her brother. Reed didn't seem to process what was going on, but I was watching. Sue was starting to put distance between herself and the pro-registration team. When Johnny got hurt, it was excuse to basically cut herself off entirely, with the handy excuse of being there for her brother.

Then there was the whole other issue with Peter. The readings in the suit I built for him showed that there was a shift in his emotional state, his pulse and blood pressure readings were higher since the visit to 42. I wasn't sure how long we would have before he would try to take his family and run.

As if on cue, an alarm went off notifying me of unusual activity in the living quarters I had set Peter, Mary Jane, and his Aunt May up in. Using my wrist sensor, I called my suit back to me and flew around the building to the outside of the living quarter. I listened in on what was going on inside.

"Hurry up. Just grab what we can so we can leave. I have to get you guys somewhere safe," Peter told them.

"Peter, what's going on?" Mary Jane asked her husband.

"I'll explain soon, I promise. We just need to hurry," Peter said.

I blasted the building, entering through the hole I'd made.

"I'm disappointed in you, Peter. After everything I've done for you, this is how you repay me? By betraying me?"

"Mary Jane, take care of Aunt May. Meet me where you found the real me the first time. I'll find you. Just stay safe," Peter told his wife, making her run with his aunt.

Peter attacked me. We had a brutal fight and I tried to use the overrides I put into the Iron Spider suit in case I ever needed to detain him, but he had figured out there were there and disabled him. In fact, not only did he override what I put into his suit, but he hacked my suit and added an override. While my suit needed to reboot, Peter, who was beaten half to death, got away into the sewers. When I got back inside, I called on two members of the Thunderbolts that I knew had issues with Peter, and sent them after him.

 **Bucky's POV:**

I was off hiding in my room, watching tv when a news report about Stark came on. My blood was boiling, but something made me keep watching.

"It seems that Goliath isn't the only superhero that Iron Man is attacking these days. The footage we just showed appears to be a fight between Iron Man and Spider Man, who is a registered superhero! There is no reason for Spider Man to be made a target. He has spoken in favor of the registration and has been Iron Man's mascot almost as long as the registration has been the law…"

I turned off the tv and ran to find Steve. I found him outside the house, training some of the Young Avengers and Runaways.

"Steve, I need to go out for a while. Call Barton, tell him to get Anya here as soon as possible."

"Where are you going, Bucky?"

"I think Spider Man just switched sides and if we don't get to him soon, we may not get to him at all. He can explain when we get back," I said, opening the portal, focusing on Spider Man.

I found him in the sewers of Manhattan, being chased by the Jester and Jack O'Lantern. The kid was already in bad shape and these idiots were trying to kill him. He really needed help.

"Hey! Morons! Why don't you pick on someone your own size?" I called to them.

They turned to look at me.

"They'll be more pleased if we turn in the Winter Soldier," Jack O'Lantern said.

"So let's get him," Jester replied to him.

I was hoping that would be their answer. I was so high on the capture list, I figured no matter who was sent after Peter, they'd be dumb enough to come for me. They engaged me, and I unsheathed my knives from the holsters on the back of my belt. The sewer was too close quarters with all the movement of combat to risk a shot, if they moved at the wrong time, the bullet could ricochet and hit Peter.

They weren't very smart or agile when it came to close-quarter combat. In fact, it didn't take me long to take them down and then take them out so they couldn't tell anyone that I came for Peter. When I was done, I went to Peter.

"You're Bucky Barnes, Captain America's best friend," he said weakly.

"Yeah, I am."

I pulled out the healing serum I had on me, but I knew it wouldn't be enough in this case. Between Stark and the two idiots I just put down, Peter was in really bad shape. I spread it over some of his worst wounds and then picked him up.

"Try not to throw up on me, Kid. This can be disorienting sometimes," I told him as I opened the portal to our house.

Anya was waiting for me and Peter. I brought him down to the lab, where she had set up to take care of him. I told her where I had used the serum and left her to her work. Steve was waiting outside for me.

"He's not going to be talking right now, so what's this about, Buck? We agreed we can't have anything to do with him while he's working with Tony."

"That's the thing, Steve. I think he was trying to get _away_ from Tony and that's why he's like this."

"What do you mean?"

"I saw a news report about Iron Man attacking Spider Man, the reporter said there was no reason considering Spider Man is registered, so he's following the law, and he's been a huge supporter of the registration act. When I got to where Peter was he was already in bad shape but Jester and Jack O'Lantern were attacking him. So I got their attention away from him, took them out, put some healing serum on his worst wounds, and brought him back here. The kid's in bad shape Steve. I think something or a combination of things scared him into seeing the reality behind Tony Stark."

 **Steve's POV:**

Peter wasn't fully coherent until the following evening, Groundhog Day. Bucky and I took shifts looking after him so Anya could go home to Clint. When he woke up, he was more than willing to explain what happened to change his mind.

"Cap, I'm so sorry for everything. I should have known this would get blown out of control. But Tony, he promised to help me and my family if I helped him with this. But all the help in the world couldn't excuse the things I've witnessed while I was with him," Peter started.

"Tell me, Peter."

"First of all, suddenly they became so obsessed with finding all of you at any cost that they started recruiting _supervillains_ to help track rogues. Then there was what happened when Tony brought me on a tour of 42."

"Wait, you've been inside 42?"

"Once. Tony said it was a peace offering because I had been asking him about where we were sending all the offenders, considering they were having their constitutional rights denied by being sent to prison without trials. But this place is worse than any prison I've ever seen."

"What do you mean?"

"Some of the prisoners are kept in some kind of alternate reality to keep them docile. Others are kept completely immobile. Essentially their cells are customized to fit their abilities."

"Did you see Sophie there?" I asked, afraid of the answer.

Peter hesitated for a minute.

"I did, and Tony didn't seem happy that I did," he finally said. "She was shackled to a gurney, with power dampeners on and… she looked bad, Cap. Not only did she look sick and exhausted, but she was hurt. I told Tony she looked like she went five rounds with Colossus. He told me she was coming from her interrogation and it was a shame because if she just told them what they wanted, they'd at least stop the interrogations."

"But it doesn't sound like they'd let her go," I concluded.

"I don't think so. He thinks she's the most dangerous superhuman out there, Cap. I'm sorry," Peter said. "That trip made my already wavering loyalty even worse, but then to see what happened to Bill Foster, it was the last straw. He was a brilliant and kind man. He didn't deserve to go out like that. I knew I needed to get out before I couldn't. Tony must've been eavesdropping on me, because he attacked me, nearly killed me, then sent Jack O'Lantern and Jester to finish the job. Bucky saved my life."

Peter stopped, lost in thought for a minute.

"Mary Jane and Aunt May! I need to go to them!"

"You're still in no shape to be travelling, much less risking being seen in Manhattan again right now," I told him. "Tell me where to find them and one of us will go get them. You just tell us something that they will know you would have told us so they trust us and come with us."

He nodded and started giving me the intel. I called Barton and asked him to handle it. Not long after I finished talking to Peter, I was alerted to someone entering the property. Bucky and I went outside to see what was happening and found none other than Sue and Johnny of the Fantastic Four pulling into our drive.

"How did you find us?" Bucky asked suspiciously, knowing he and Sophie got the property completely off the grid.

"I told them where to come," Hank said coming outside. "They're here to join our cause."

"Turn off your electronics and hand them over. Give me the keys to your car," Bucky said.

"Are you kidding me?" asked Johnny.

"No, actually. Considering you came in without one of us bringing you in, we're serious. We'll give them back, but we need to search your electronics and your car to make sure there's no way you can be tracked here. In the meantime, Dr. Pym is free to show you around. Make yourselves at home," I said.

Johnny was still looking at us incredulously, but Sue handed everything over for both of them before leading Johnny into the house behind Dr. Pym.

"She saved our lives the night that Bill died, Buck. He was attacked outside a nightclub. You could be a little nicer to them," Steve said to me.

"You can't tell me it's not suspicious that they showed up here on their own."

"I agree with you, which is why I backed you up. But maybe be a little less hostile to them. For Sue to be here, especially, it means she didn't just leave her husband, but she left her children behind. It can't be easy for her to do that. It couldn't have been easy for Johnny to leave his niece and nephew either. They really must've had a change of heart about the way Tony and Reid are doing things to be here," Steve said before going inside, leaving me to check for anything that could be used to track them.

 **Sophie's POV:**

I had been brought to the interrogation room. Since there was no sense of time in the negative zone, I didn't know whether or not this was a routine thing. Until I found Stark himself in there, with Reid Richards behind him. I couldn't move around to see much, but I could see Reid was by a control panel of some sort, and there was the usual table of "tools" which included knives, scalpels, and anything else they could think of to torture me with.

"Are you ready to talk, Rogers?" Stark asked me.

I ignored him. He started attaching wires to me. I had no idea what he was up to.

"Are you going to give up the rogues or not?"

Still I said nothing. Suddenly, not only were there scalpels being driven into my upper arms, but there were strong electrical currents running through me. My body convulsed under the shock of the currents and I could smell the blood pouring out of my arms sizzling.

"Tony, are you sure you know what we're doing here? She's having convulsions. These are high powered electrical currents," Reid said.

"Increase the voltage. I want her to scream," Stark replied. "We've had her for over a month. She won't tell us about the rogues. Bill Foster is dead. Sue and Johnny left you and the kids. Even Parker has joined the rogues. We _need_ to end this now. The public is already starting to turn. We have to get the rogues in custody before we can't salvage this, Reed."

 _Bill Foster was dead? Spider Man, the Invisible Woman, and the Human Torch had all joined the resistance?_ I thought as Reid increased the voltage being pumped into me. As much as Tony wanted me to, I wouldn't scream. Instead, as hard as it was, I forced myself to focus on the electrical current they were stupidly running into me. It took a lot of energy, but I was able to redirect them to my power dampeners, completely disabling them. Before they noticed the power dampeners were disabled, I called on fire to melt the shackles. Once that was done, I let them know they'd messed up.

I sent an electrical surge back at the control panel, blowing it up and knocking Reid Richards out in the process. Before Stark could do anything, I had the scalpels in my hands and I threw them at him, leaving him bleeding from the chest, intentionally missing his heart. Between shrapnel from the control panel and the scalpels, he was in bad shape. Then I went to him, sticking my hand into his breast pocket, where I knew he kept my wedding and engagement rings and took them back. I took a knife from the table and shoved it through his left hand.

"I'll be back for you Stark," I said as I opened the fire portal, but with how weak I was, I couldn't go further than Queens.

I wound up on a quiet part of Roosevelt Island. I knew I was in trouble if I didn't get out of there soon, but I couldn't stand up on my own yet, my energy was drained from my escape and I was still hurt and feeling a little sick for the first time in my life. Not knowing what else to do I called out to someone who might help me.

"Thor! I know Heimdall and you can hear me! Please! I'm in trouble and I'm alone! I need help before Stark takes me away again!"

In the distance I could hear alarms coming from Riker's Island, signaling a prison break. I didn't have long before Cape-Killers, cops in helicopters, and who knew who else was looking for me. Suddenly, a bright light shone down on me and I collapsed in it.

 **Bucky's POV:**

When Barton came back with Peter's family, he told us something went down on Riker's Island, that it seemed as though there was a prison break. Victor hacked into the system for 42 and as far as their records said, all inmates were accounted for. Still something seemed off. All of us knew something was wrong.

"One of you take me back to the city," Sue said the following day. "I can find out if there is anything going on that Reid and Tony are trying to hide."

"How? You can't just walk into Stark Towers," I replied.

"If you can drop me a few blocks away from there, I can get in. They don't call me the Invisible Woman for nothing, Barnes," she replied. "I can slip past security. As long as I stay out of certain ranges of Tony's Iron Man suits, nothing will be able to detect me."

"I can't wait there for you. I'm high profile."

"So leave me with one of the transporter devices. I'll get out of the building, clear it by a few blocks, and use it to get back here to let you know what's going on."

"It sounds like a good plan, Bucky," Steve said. "Sue is probably the only one who could walk right into Stark's office and find out what he's hiding from everyone. In the meantime, Victor is going to break into the newsfeeds so Peter can give a speech renouncing his support of the Superhuman Registration Act."

"When do you want to go?" I asked Sue.

"Give me ten minutes and I'll meet you out front. I just want to check on Johnny before I go," she replied, leaving the room.

"If you trust her, I'll give her the benefit of the doubt. I don't know her as well," I told Steve.

"She's a good woman, Buck. One of the best. She wants to see the greater good done… the right way," Steve told me.

I went outside to wait for Sue.

 **Steve's POV:**

After Sue and Bucky left, it didn't take long for Victor to break into the national newsfeeds like he did after the failed peace talks. Once he was ready, he sat Peter in front of the camera. I stayed behind the camera to support him in case he faltered.

"My name is Peter Parker and you all already know that I am Spider Man. The last time I was on the news it was to announce that I was in support of the Superhuman Registration Act and reveal the identity under my mask. Tonight, I am here to say that while I am registered under the act, I am no longer in support of the way it is being enforced or what it stands for.

"Since I've been at Tony Stark's side my family and me have been threatened and forced into hiding. I have seen heroes who were long-time friends being forced to fight each other because they don't agree with the registration. I have even seen Goliath, a kind, brilliant man, killed by a creation of Tony Stark and Reid Richards called Ragnarok, a clone of the Avenger Thor, who is back on Asgard. I have been brought to 42, the prison in the negative zone where anyone who does not register for the Superhuman Registration Act is sent, whether they are heroes who have saved this country before, or they are supervillains who have tried to destroy it.

"First, they are all being sent there without their constitutional right to a trial. Second, they are being kept in states where they can't do much, either by being kept fully immobile or by using a virtual reality to make them believe they are in a different environment. Finally, the worst of all, they are holding Captain America's wife, Sophie Rogers, there with no intent on releasing her… ever. In her captivity, Mrs. Rogers undergoes daily interrogations where she is beaten and tortured while they try to get her to give up the location of Captain America and the Winter Soldier. I saw the results of this with my own eyes. They keep her shackled to a gurney, with power dampeners down, leaving her weak and defenseless against their onslaught of daily attacks. She is only eighteen years old and she is also Hawkeye's daughter.

"When I realized all of these things and the fact that Stark was recruiting known supervillains to track heroes who wouldn't sign up for the registration, I decided to leave with my family. Tony Stark tried to kill me. When he couldn't, he sent two of these supervillains to finish me, knowing how badly injured I already was. With the help of one of the rogues, I was brought to a safehouse where I was given medical treatment. This is what happened to me because I couldn't support someone who was denying people their constitutional rights, killing good people, and torturing teenagers to get his way, all while aligning himself with supervillains. I am registered, so I am not in violation of the law, so the only reason I see that Tony Stark would have had to try to kill me was that I saw too much that people shouldn't know.

"Just know that my stance is this: I'm against the registration having seen what's happening because of it, but whether you register or not, you're not safe. Be careful."

Victor killed the feed.

 **Sophie's POV:**

I woke up in a room and I knew I wasn't back in 42 or any other place I knew. Suddenly, a woman came and checked on me. When she was done, she left. A few moments later, Thor and a man with one eye came into the room bickering.

"How many times do I have to tell you that we do NOT interfere in the affairs of mortals, Thor? Whether they live or die, is of no consequence to us," the man with one eye said.

I struggled to sit up and when Thor tried to help me, I shook my head no. I wasn't sure I could handle my power just yet, not with the extra voltage they ran through me.

"Sorry, Thor," I said, my throat very hoarse. "I got a high dose of electricity before I called out for you and Heimdall. I'm not sure how much control I have. I don't want to risk it. I'm sorry, but thank you for your help. I really needed it."

"Father, this is Sophie Rogers, daughter of the Eye of Hawk, wife of Captain America, fellow Avengers when I go to Midgard," Thor started the introductions. "Sophie, this is my father, Odin, the All-Father."

I thought back to the many things that I had researched when I was trying to stay inconspicuous. Odin was the All-Father, King of the Nine Realms, a great warrior, and married to Frigga.

"The King of the Nine Realms, it is an honor, sir," I said, my throat still hoarse, but trying to be respectful.

"What have you told her, Thor?" Odin asked.

"I told her of the Nine Realms when I was training her…"

"You _trained_ a Midgardian!"

"Not in battle, Father, though she does have a warrior's heart as strong as any in our army. She was the one who breached Asgard a few months back that I told you about. When I brought her home to my old friends, they told me the fact that she electrocuted Lady Sif was not normal for her, and asked me to help her learn to control her new abilities with electricity. That is all I trained her in. Controlling her abilities with electricity," Thor explained.

"Do you mean to tell me this Midgardian has powers?" Odin asked.

Before Thor could answer, I spoke up.

"All-Father, with all due respect, yes, I do. My mother was experimented on when she was pregnant with me. I was born with the ability to open portals using fire, control over fire, and the ability to short-circuit any electronics near me when I opened the portals. By the time I was ten and I got my hands on my first bow and quiver of arrows, I found I also had excellent marksmanship, which only got better as I got older."

"I find it hard to believe. Most Midgardians are so… mundane," Odin said.

"Perhaps, before I return her to Midgard, she can give you a demonstration. She is also excellent at hand to hand combat, Father," Thor said. "But can she please just rest a little longer? I've seen her when she is healthy and she does heal quickly, but she is not quite there yet, Father."

"Fine, I will allow it, but if she does not prove to be able to do the things both of you are claiming she can do, she will spend the rest of her life in the prisons here in Asgard," Odin said storming out.

"I guess it's a good thing neither of us lied," I said, leaning on Thor when he sat down next to me.

"Sophie, I have never seen you so injured. What happened to you?"

I explained everything.

"They attacked you when you went to save your brother and sister?" Thor asked, angrily.

"Yeah. Used an enhanced named Deadpool to take me out. Brought me to the prison in the negative zone. I already told you the rest."

"That is beyond low! I am glad you were able to use Stark's arrogance to escape that prison and call for us. We will help take care of you! But there is something we must tell you, and I am afraid it is more bad news," he said, trying to be gentle with his next words.

"What else could have gone wrong, Thor?"

"The reason you were not healing nearly as quickly as you should have, even when you did not have the contraptions that blocked your powers, it was because you were with child Sophie."

"I _was_ pregnant? As in I'm not anymore?"

"I am sorry, but the child was lost not long after we brought you here. Soon after your healing sped up," Thor said to me.

I looked at him in shock. I miscarried a child I didn't even know I had been carrying, a child that Steve and I definitely weren't planning for. We'd only slept together twice after my father quit the team, I knew it was possible to get pregnant that quickly, but I wasn't expecting it. I didn't know how to feel about this; and I definitely didn't know how to tell Steve this.

"Thank you for telling me, Thor."

"Are you alright, Sophie?"

"I'm not sure, but I will be. I have to be."

"Get some rest. I should be able to return you to Midgard in a day or two and Father will hold us to that display we promised."

I gave him a weak smile as I stretched out on the bed. The woman who checked me when I woke came back. Thor squeezed my hand and left me as I tried to rest.

 **Bucky's POV:**

I was outside in the front yard, trying to think about what Sue had told us a few days before. _Stark and Reid were trying to cover-up that Sophie broke out of 42. They had no idea where she was, but they wanted us to believe she was still there to try to lure us there in an attempt to rescue her._ The good news was that Stark wasn't able to torture her at the moment. The bad news was that nobody knew where she was. Suddenly, bright lights shone down on me in the yard and I wasn't at the safehouse anymore.

I was in a round golden room. A man with a sword stood in the center of it, pulling it out of some kind of machine.

"You are the Soldier of Winter, I am Heimdall, Watcher of Asgard, Guardian of the Bifrost," the man said. "Follow me, Odin, the All-Father, has ordered me to bring you here to help prove the truth behind Thor Odinson and Sophie Rogers' words, that she is a Midgardian with powers not natural to Midgardians and that she is a skilled warrior. Both you and Rogers' will take on Thor Odinson in a skirmish for the entertainment of the All-Father."

I just started following him even though I wasn't completely sure of what he was saying. I just knew that he said Sophie was here. When we reached what I could only describe as an arena, Sophie was there, arming herself. I was allowed to go to her.

"Sophie, how long have you been here?"

"Since I broke out of 42."

"What's going on?"

"Odin isn't sure he believes I have powers. So Thor offered a demonstration, which I didn't care. But then Odin said if I couldn't back up what me and Thor told him I'd spend the rest of my life in the prisons of Asgard. Thor convinced him to allow me a partner, and I chose you."

"So we have to fight Thor?"

"Basically, but my powers are allowed, as are Thor's. If it looks like he's gonna go for lightning, let me absorb the hit. I'll be fine."

"Soph, that's more electricity than you've ever…"

"Not anymore," she said not looking at me.

"What are you…"

"Not now. Odin is about to speak."

"A few days ago, my son Thor and this Midgardian told me that she has powers that most Midgardians do not possess. Thor also claims she has the heart of a warrior as fierce as any warrior on Asgard. We are here today to see if these claims are true. If they are, she will have freedom here in Asgard as well as Midgard. If they are lies, she will spend the rest of her life in the prisons here, her partner banished back to Midgard," Odin said to the crowd. "So, let this battle begin!"

"I'll start, arm yourself and meet me on the battlefield," she said to me as she went out to meet Thor.

Thor nodded at her. His first move was to lift Mjolnir to the sky and shoot lightning at her. It knocked her a step back, but she absorbed the electrical current, harnessed it, and her hands started sparking. The crowd gasped that she, a Midgardian, didn't die from the attack. She opened a portal and appeared behind Thor, putting one of her sparking hands on either side of his neck, making him convulse slightly from the direct exposure to his skin, before stepping back into her portal and meeting me on the other side of the battle field. From there, she shot a volley of arrows at Thor, pinning down his cape.

While he got himself free, Sophie and I drew daggers and made our way towards him, ready to engage in close combat. Thor was ready. We went back and forth each of us getting good hits in, but none of us backing down, until finally Odin called an end to the fight.

"I want my elite guard in front of me," Odin called.

I noticed there was only one woman in the elite guard.

"Do any of you have doubts of this Midgardian's capabilities as a warrior or the ability to wield powers not native to Midgard?"

None of them stepped forward or said anything.

"Nor do I," Odin said. "Sophie Rogers, Daughter of the Eye of Hawk, come before me!"

She looked at Thor as we holstered the daggers we had. He nodded at her and she walked towards Odin, in front of the elite guard.

"You have proven yourself worthy of the Realm Eternal, Asgard. Should you ever need to return, it will be with my blessing and encouragement. If you ever choose to train with Thor and members of the guard of his choosing, you are also welcome to do that. Now, I understand you must return to Midgard now, but know that Asgard will welcome you back when you need it."

"Thank you, All-Father. It is an honor to have earned that right," she said to him, bowing to him the way his guard had.

When he let all of us go, Thor took us back to the room I first entered and asked Heimdall, the guy who just pulled me out of my yard, to send us back to Midgard.

 **Sophie's POV:**

When we stepped out of the rainbow from the bifrost, Bucky and Thor were in full-on celebration mode. They were loud, and why shouldn't they be? Bucky didn't know what I was dealing with, only that I needed his help because Thor's father said if I didn't impress him enough I'd spend the rest of my life in prison in a realm that neither him, Steve, or my dad could break me out of.

Dad and Steve came out along with the other Secret Avengers who were at the house. Dad pulled me into a hug immediately.

"Sophie, I'm so sorry. That was my older brother Barney that took Cooper and Lila. He was working with the pro-registration forces to try to get to me. When I didn't show up they decided to take you instead. I'm sorry I never told you about him, I haven't had anything to do with him for so long that it didn't even cross my mind until Cooper and Lila told me about who had them," he kept apologizing.

I pulled out of his hug a bit. I knew he was sorry. I could see it in his eyes.

"It's okay, Dad. I'm not mad," I said to him. "But would you mind if me and Steve skipped these revels? Bucky and I just fought Thor to a standstill on Asgard for his father's approval for me to be able to leave."

"Wait, what?" Dad asked.

"Thor can tell you," I told him, knowing Thor wouldn't mention anything other than tonight since I'd already asked him not to say anything about it to anyone outside of Asgard.

"Okay, I guess it's okay, but your mom will want to see you tomorrow, Sophie," Dad said.

"I know. I just need some time with my husband right now. We haven't had much time for that since we got married and I just need some quiet time with him," I said.

I could tell I wasn't saying something but he just waved us off. Steve led me into the house and into what was now our room, his original room. After giving me some time to shower, he let me just lead him where I wanted to be. I didn't want to be on the bed, so I sat in one of the chairs that we had by the window. He sat across from me.

"You know what I went through this time, don't you?" I asked him.

"I have an idea, but no specifics. Peter told me after Bucky rescued him from Stark."

"Why did he have to rescue Peter?"

"He tried to leave, Stark tried to kill him. It made the news," Steve said. "But we can get into that later. I can tell you want to tell me something. What is it, Sophie?"

"It was different this time, Steve. Then the first time they had me in prison. Worse. I still wouldn't tell them anything. Stark stole my engagement ring and wedding band, which I got back after I stabbed him before I broke out. But last time my enhanced healing slowed down, this time it essentially stopped."

"Why?"

"I didn't find out until I was on Asgard, which I called out to Thor and Heimdall because I literally did not have the energy to protect myself or to open a portal to get me farther than Roosevelt Island. But when I woke up, after Odin spoke to me, Thor sat with me and explained why my body wasn't acting normally, Steve… I was pregnant by the time they put me in 42. Instead of my enhanced healing me, it was trying to protect the baby. Even still, I was in such bad shape, I even felt sick for the first time in my life… I lost the baby not long after I got to Asgard. That's when I finally started to get better myself," I said not able to look him in the eye.

Steve didn't say anything at first. For the first time since Thor told me I had been pregnant and miscarried I cried. Steve got up and held me in his arms.

"It's okay, Sophie. It's going to be okay. _We're_ going to be okay. You don't have to go through this alone. I'm here for you, just tell me what you need," he said to me in the most soothing voice he could. "I still love you. This doesn't change anything."

He pulled me into a standing position and kissed away my tears before kissing me gently on the lips. Finally, he picked me up, carried me to our bed, where he held me as I cried myself to sleep. As I did, I couldn't be sure, but I thought I heard him cry a bit for our lost unborn child.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine:**

 **Steve's POV:**

When I was sure that Sophie was in a deep sleep I got up and left the room. I needed some air. I was in shock. Bucky and Thor were outside still. Everyone else that had stayed for the party had left for the night.

"Captain! How are you?" Thor asked me.

I didn't answer at first.

"What's wrong, Steve?" Bucky asked me, as both he and Thor got more serious suddenly.

"She spoke with you already, hasn't she?" Thor asked.

I nodded at him, fresh tears coming to my eyes, my knees getting weak, anger being the main thing keeping me standing upright. All the pain Sophie went through and I couldn't help her with any of it. What kind of husband was I?

"Would one of you tell me what's going on here?" Bucky demanded.

Thor looked at me.

"Sophie was pregnant when she was sent to 42, Bucky. She miscarried not long after she escaped. It was the only way her body could start healing to save _her_ life," I finally said, a few silent tears escaping my eyes.

Bucky looked at me in shock. Then he looked at Thor as if for an explanation.

"We tried to help her, but we realized that she was with child. Her body could no longer sustain life for both the child and the Captain's wife, and she lost the child. The enhanced healing began not long after. She awoke a day or so later, and I tried to be as gentle as I could, Old Friend, as I gave her such grievous news," Thor explained.

"Was she okay when you told her?" I asked.

"She put on a brave face and told be though she was not sure she was, she had to be, therefore she would be, Captain."

"Where is she?" Bucky asked, finally finding his voice.

"She cried herself to sleep. I needed air. I didn't want to risk waking her up. We're the only ones other than Sophie who knows, Bucky. We can't tell anyone. That's her story to tell."

"What about her parents?"

"Let her tell them when she's ready. She must've gotten pregnant right around the time her mother miscarried. I don't know how she's going to want to break this to them."

"Her mother lost a child as well?" asked Thor.

"She was so busy taking care of all of us, she wouldn't take care of herself. That night Sophie finally got control of her powers of electricity with you, Thor, that is why she was so upset and why Barton left the team. Her mother was very sick and asked Sophie to take care of her, which included surgery. Sophie's many things, but she's not a doctor, let alone a surgeon. She was able to save her mother's life, but not the life of her unborn brother or sister."

"The Eye of Hawk's family seems to have fallen on very difficult times," Thor replied.

"That is only in the last year. Laura's death, the two miscarriages, Sophie's two arrests, the kidnappings; it's all in the last year, Thor," Bucky told him.

"And yet they stand strong. They are a family of warriors. In mind and spirit," Thor said.

"We should get inside, in case Sophie wakes up with nightmares, Steve. Thor, you can sleep in my room. I assume you'd like to see Sophie before you're off to Asgard again?" Bucky asked.

"I would. Thank you for the hospitality Soldier of Winter."

"Steve, do you mind if I just hang out in your room for the night, keeping watch over the two of you?"

"What about sleeping, Bucky?"

"I have a lot on my mind right now and I'd rather know my two best friends are safe," Bucky said.

I nodded at him and we all went inside. Thor went to Bucky's room and Bucky made himself comfortable watching out our window. Everything was fine until Sophie started screaming an hour later. It took both me and Bucky to calm her. She fell asleep with both of us holding her as she cried and we stayed like that for the rest of the night.

 **Sophie's POV:**

I didn't remember what happened, but I woke up with Bucky and Steve on either side of me. I somehow got out of bed without waking either of them and into the shower, but when I got out, they were up and sitting on the bed. Just looking at Bucky, I knew he knew what Steve did. Relief that I didn't have to tell him washed over me.

"Are you okay, Soph?" Bucky asked me as Steve got up to hold me from behind.

"I don't really have time not to be. I can't change it. We have a war to win and Stark has a hard-on for getting me back into his custody. We can't dwell on this," I replied.

"Sophie, we can't just ignore this," Steve said gently, his lips close to my ear.

"I know," I said, feeling defeated. "I just don't know how to deal with this, guys. I can't break right now. Maybe… for the time being… this should stay between the three of us and Thor."

"What about your parents?" Steve asked.

"Your mother could help you deal with this Sophie. She understands," Bucky agreed.

I thought about it. Me not telling my parents meant that me and Steve would have to face this alone in the privacy of our room when nobody was looking. Was that fair to him? If I did tell my parents, even if I wasn't ready to talk, maybe Steve and Dad could help each other.

"Can you give me a few days to think about it? They just got me back. I don't want to break this to them just yet," I replied, buying myself time to think about it more.

"That's fair," Steve said.

"We should get downstairs. Your family is already here and Thor is getting ready to head back to Asgard, but he says he needs to speak to you first," Bucky said.

We went downstairs and after I told my family I was just going to see Thor off first, I walked outside with my Asgardian friend, Steve and Bucky at my sides. We were standing where the bifrost had been opened multiple times before.

"I have gifts for you, Sophie, from Asgard," Thor said to me.

"What?"

"Gifts, from the Realm Eternal," he repeated, handing me a shortsword and a new bow and quiver of arrows. "These are from the All-Father. He says a warrior like yourself needs weapons worthy of them. This shortsword will help channel your electric powers, much like I can use Mjolnir to channel lightning. Also like Mjolnir, only you may wield it. It is yours and yours alone, unless my father deems someone else is worthy to carry on your legacy. The bow and quiver of arrows may be wielded by another if you so choose. Their aim is true, and as long as the person wielding it is focused, it will never miss their target. The arrows are also made of materials you will not find here in Midgard."

He grabbed a pouch, handing it to me. I opened it and found a necklace with a pendant. The pendant looked a bit like the bifrost on Asgard, where Heimdall watched from.

"This is from Heimdall," Thor explained. "As you have permission to enter Asgard whenever you choose now, he says if you ever need to get there in a hurry, put your hand on this, and just think of the Realm Eternal. He will hear your thoughts and return you to Asgard."

"Thank you, Thor. And please thank Heimdall and the All-Father when you return. I am astonished at the generosity and am grateful for all they have both done. Perhaps I will take the All-Father up on his offer to come train with you for a bit at some point," I said to Thor as I hugged him. "After all, you've already proven to be such an excellent teacher."

"I would relish the opportunity to teach you the ways of the Asgardian warriors, Sophie Rogers," Thor said. "Until then, remember that you have a place on Asgard to call home if you need to."

"But a warrior never abandons a fight," I told him.

"Very true! You are indeed a warrior through and through!" Thor said laughing. "Stay safe, Sophie. Captain, Soldier of Winter, take care of yourselves. Hopefully we will all see each other soon."

"Thank you for taking care of her again, Thor," Steve said.

"And thanks for not letting your father keep her in jail in Asgard. The fight was fun. We'll have to do it again," Bucky said with a smirk.

"Yes it was, Soldier of Winter! We must do that again!" Thor said, stepping back. "But in the meantime… Heimdall! The bifrost!"

The rainbow portal opened over Thor and he waved to us once more before he was no longer with us. We returned to my family and it was a mushy morning of my mother fawning over me, my brother and sister double-checking that I really was okay after I saved them, and re-telling the tale of what happened in Asgard with Thor and Bucky that led to me having new weapons. Looking at Dad, he knew I was hiding something. At the end of the morning, while Mom insisted on making lunch, he cornered me.

"What aren't you telling us, Sophie?"

"Honestly? A lot. Steve said you guys have some idea what happened to me in the prison this time because of Peter?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Well, there's more to it, and I might tell you this soon, but I need to think about it for a few days. I just can't tell you yet. I'm not ready, Dad. You know how I am about being in custody and talking."

"I know, which makes me wonder more why you would say anything now, Sophie."

"You'll understand if I break the silence, Dad."

 **Barton's POV:**

I didn't like this. Bucky, Steve, and Sophie came over to our house and then Bucky took my kids back to their house so it was only me and Anya with Steve and Sophie. It had been nearly a month since Sophie had returned from Asgard. Her nineteenth birthday was in two days. And I had a feeling she was going to make sure we didn't try to celebrate it.

"Mom, Dad," she said, sitting down with Steve in the living room, motioning for us to do the same. "Me and Steve wanted to talk to you about something that happened in my time at 42."

My stomach dropped. I had heard Parker's interview since she came back. I knew she'd been tortured, even though I didn't know specifics. And because of her advanced healing, Sophie never scarred.

"You can tell us anything, Baby," Anya told our daughter.

Sophie started talking, explaining what she found out when she got to Asgard, what she'd _really_ lost, other than the last of her childhood. I hid my rage, though in the back of my head, I was already plotting how to find Barney like I promised him I would.

Instead, I looked at Steve and Sophie, who had only been married a few months and endured so much together. They looked so vulnerable and lost. Anya and I had recently gone through the same loss as well, and I knew this was bringing up some hard memories for both Anya and Sophie. Sophie blamed herself for the miscarriage, but I was just grateful that she had been able to save her mother's life. I grieved the child that we lost, but I didn't know what I would have done if I lost Anya too.

I understood why they were talking to us about this ordeal as opposed to the last arrest. They didn't know how to deal with it and needed help. Even though Steve was technically almost 99, this was a new experience for him, one he shouldn't have to experience. Nobody should. But here we were, in the same boat. Both of us in love with Holden women (which was so hard for me to say about my daughter), both of us grieving the loss of our unborn child as casualties of this stupid war. They needed us. Or more likely, Sophie was doing this so Steve would have the option to speak to me if he needed someone who understood. Sophie was the type to push this all down until it _had_ to be dealt with. But she wouldn't force that on Steve.

"They couldn't have known," Anya said. "They wouldn't have tortured you knowing you were pregnant!"

I looked at Sophie, who wouldn't look at her mother.

"They fucking knew, didn't they?" I asked, my anger getting closer to the surface.

"My bloodwork showed that I was pregnant within two weeks of my arrest, according to their files, Dad," Sophie said. "I hacked their computers to see if they figured it out before I broke out and they did. So I sent J.A.R.V.I.S. a virus. Stark has been vulnerable for the last twelve hours. It's going to take him at least twenty four to get the system back up."

"What about the Vision and S.H.I.E.L.D.?" I asked her.

"Vision seems to have left the pro-registration side, when I placed it in his memory that I was pregnant as Stark had me tortured for information. I don't know what he's going to do, but I placed a trace into his programming and he hasn't been responding to Stark since. S.H.I.E.L.D. is down for the count too. They upgraded all their tech to Stark tech, which is upgraded through J.A.R.V.I.S. so with J.A.R.V.I.S. being out, their systems are fucked. We're all free to move as we need to for the next 16 hours, I'd say safely."

"Why now?"

"I need to take a trip, Dad. Alone. And it means that I will be out in the open in a few places."

"Why aren't you going with her, Steve?"

"She won't tell me where she's going, but she's made it clear that at least one stop involves people that may not be the best for me to be seen with right now."

"I'll go with you, Sophie," I volunteered.

"No, Dad. I'll be fine. Besides, something tells me that while Steve and Bucky are going to take advantage of this window, you've got your own plans. I should be home by tomorrow."

"Sophie, you can't act like nothing happened to you, Baby," Anya spoke up.

"Mom, it's not that. I want this over. Maybe then I can deal with what happened. Right now… I don't have the luxury of disappearing and dealing with this. This war, me, Steve, and Bucky are at the center of it. It would be selfish if I just vanished, especially if I took Steve with me. So we're going to stay together and work through this. At the end, we'll step out of the spotlight, so to speak, and deal with this on our own. And I'm not taking a shot at you guys. This isn't really your fight. You stay in it for me, I'm not stupid. I love you guys, but I know that's the truth. I'm not mad you needed time away after it happened to you."

"Stay in touch when you get back, Baby. I want to know you made it back safely," Anya said.

"I will, Mom."

With that, Sophie and Steve stepped through a portal and left. I looked at Anya, who looked crushed, and held her in my arms as she cried, for both of her children who were casualties of this war; the one we'd lost and the one who was still fighting.

A few hours later, after Bucky brought the kids home and Anya was calmer, I started looking into where Barney was. Without Stark's tech to hide him, it was really easy to find him. I gave Anya a kiss good-bye and I used the teleporter to go to where he was.

When I got outside the building I tracked him, I cased it, looking for security, anyone else who might be with him, anything I should be wary of. Certain I could get in unseen, I went it. I found Barney passed out drunk in bed. I shot a sonic arrow above his head, waking him.

"WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!" he yelled out.

"I warned you, _Trickshot_ , that if anything happened to her, what I did to you last time would be nothing compared to what I did to you when I came back to get you."

"Clint!" he said with a nervous laugh. "Come on little brother, you're not really gonna hurt me, are you?"

I released the arrow I had at the ready, which hit him right in the family jewels.

"Son of a bitch! What the fuck is wrong with you, Clint?!"

"I warned you! I fucking told you if _anything_ happened to her, you'd pay for it. Well guess what, _Big Brother_? _Something_ happened!" I yelled at him as I went on the attack.

I shot an ice arrow at Barney's dominant arm, freezing it, to sub-zero temperatures. I jumped on him and started beating him down, like a street kid. I knew Barney could fight, but I'd already messed him up really badly. By the time I left him, I'd broken his eye sockets, broken every bone in one arm and hand, left the other frost-bitten, damaged his family jewels beyond repair, and beaten him nearly to death in general.

"Just know this, if you _do_ somehow survive this, you're _dead_ to me, Barney. You're not my brother anymore; you're nothing to me. If you come near me or any of my family again, I'll kill you next time."

I pressed the teleporter and went back home, going down to the barn first so I could wash the blood off of me before I went into the house. When I went inside, I could tell Anya knew I'd done something. After dinner, while the kids watched a little tv, she asked.

"Where did you go, Clint?"

"To find Barney again."

"What did you do?"

"Beat him nearly to death."

"Clint!"

"I warned him if anything happened to our daughter because he helped Natasha and the others, I'd be back for him. And look what happened to her, Anya. How much more pain can we be expected to just sit back and watch our daughter go through while she pushes it aside for everyone else's sake?"

"Will he live?"

"Don't know. But if he does, I warned him to stay away from my family because I will kill him if he comes near them again. What I do know is he'll never shoot a bow and arrow again."

 **Sophie's POV:**

I felt bad, leaving Steve and Bucky after we told my parents about the miscarriage. But we needed to get things done. I needed supplies, they had ops they wanted to run to try to help rogues they hadn't been able to get to yet, and we had a limited window. As it stood, I had told them what I hadn't told Dad… There was no way I'd be back home before Stark would get his systems up. But I knew I wouldn't get captured this time. I had the power of Asgard behind me this time.

 _Six years ago: (New York City)_

 _I had to stay hidden. I knew the labs had people looking for me again. It was close to my birthday, the one time of year they had extra people looking for me, the one time of year I wasn't allowed to go see Mom for the entire month, because she was afraid they'd find me. It was a lonely time of year every year and I hated it._

 _It was just after the time that most school kids got out of school, so I was hiding in a public library, trying to blend in, reading up on various things. Suddenly, I felt as if I were in danger. Looking up, I saw some of the security I'd known in the lab. They'd somehow tracked me. Panicked, I started packing the few things I owned and looking around for an escape route._

 _Not seeing one, I called fire, and set a fire in the carpet right by the guards. I was upstairs. They were by the entrance. As the library started getting evacuated, I snuck out the fire exit on the side street and ran into two people who grabbed me and rushed me away from the scene. Something about them told me to trust them, which was the only reason I didn't attack them._

 _We didn't get far from the library when they put me into a car and introduced themselves as Scott Summers and Ororo Monroe. They told me they knew my name was Sophie Holden and they had been sent to save me from those guards and get me somewhere safe. I was a little suspicious, but knowing I could open the portals, I figured I'd at least hear them out before I tried to run again._

" _Okay, fine, you know my name, but will you please tell me how you knew where I'd be and where you're taking me?"_

" _We're taking you someplace safe, Sophie, somewhere you may gain help with your powers," Ororo told me._

 _Okay, they knew a lot more about me than I thought. I stayed silent for the rest of the ride. When we finally got where we were going, we were in upstate New York. The plaque said something about a school for gifted youngsters._

" _Come on, Sophie, we want you to meet someone," Scott said._

 _I hesitated._

" _Come, child. It's safe here. I understand your hesitance. I, too, grew up on the streets at a young age, until Professor Xavier found me. He helped me. And now, he sent us to get you so he can try to help you as well," Ororo said to me, making me feel a little more comfortable._

 _I followed Ororo and she introduced me to Professor Charles Xavier. I spent a few months at the school before I told them I needed to go. Professor Xavier didn't seem happy about it, but he understood, he saw what was in my mind, why I was running again. In the end, he promised if I ever needed anything, I could always return._

 _Present:_

"And now I'm back here and you're not here, Professor," I said to myself as I waited to be let into the school.

"What are you doing here? You're on the most wanted list and the X-Men are mutual in this civil war," Emma Frost said, coming to the gate. "We can't be seen with you, Sophie."

"Emma, I'm not here to stay and you don't have to worry about me being seen here. Stark's tech is all done right now. I just need to speak to Scott. Five minutes is all I need and I'll leave. I promise. Please. I'm not asking for you to involve yourselves on either side. I'm just looking for someone, Emma."

"Why aren't you with your husband?"

I tried not to think about why I was throwing myself into this task, but I felt her get it from my mind. She softened slightly.

"I'm sorry, Sophie. Nobody should suffer that."

"Please don't tell anyone, Emma. We're keeping that under wraps. I don't want anyone thinking I'm acting irrationally or pitying me. I just want to work on ways to project my husband and our team," I said as she nodded to me. "Will you please let me talk to Cyclops?"

She opened the gate.

"I will give you your five minutes, Sophie, but seeing as we need to protect everyone here…"

"I understand, Emma. Thank you."

Emma led me to Scott Summers, one of the two first X-Men I'd ever met years ago. We sat down in one of the offices after he got over his shock of seeing me.

"How are you, Sophie?"

"I'm focused, Scott. I need to gather supplies to work on some projects for my husband and our team, and because I respect the position this place has taken in the war, I need to cut the niceties and ask for a favor. I can't be here for long and risk all of you seeming as though you are choosing our side over Stark's."

"I understand. What can I do for you?"

"I need to find Ororo. Where is Storm?"

After I left Scott, promising when the war was over I'd bring my husband to the school to meet him, I opened a portal to find Storm. Scott had shown me some pictures, making the portals easier, but I knew it was still dangerous. This was a delicate situation and one wrong word or move could lead to a disaster. Stepping out of the portal, it wasn't long before I was approached by armed guards.

"Drop your weapons and state your weapons here!" The leader demanded of me.

Keeping one hand in the air, I carefully started disarming myself, removing my Asgardian sword and bow and quiver. They were the only weapons I had on me.

"My name is Sophie Rogers. Queen Ororo knows me as Sophie Holden, and I was looking for her help. I am now unarmed and not looking for any trouble," I said in response.

They picked up my bow and quiver of arrows. When they went to pick up the sword, they couldn't.

"Why can't we move that weapon?" the leader asked.

"It is a special gift, given to me as a gift by the All-Father, Odin, of Asgard. Only I may lift it," I responded.

"Are you an Asgardian, like Thor?"

"No; enhanced, like Queen Ororo. I earned the All-Father's respect, and he gave me these weapons as a gift. That sword will remain there unless I pick it up again, which I will not do without permission until I leave."

They didn't seem happy, but they led me away. I was locked in a room where I was left to wonder if I had made a mistake. A few hours later, Storm and who I could only guess was the Black Panther, King of Wakanda and her husband, walked into the room. Behind them, someone brought food and drinks.

"Sophie. You have grown, Child," Ororo said to me.

"Well, that happens when someone becomes an adult, Ororo," I said to her as I smiled and gave her a hug.

"This is my husband, T'Challa, King of Wakanda, the Black Panther," Ororo said to me.

I bowed to her husband.

"It is an honor to meet you, Your Majesty," I said to T'Challa.

"What can we do for you here in Wakanda?" Ororo asked me. "I assume this isn't just a social visit considering the political climate of the United States?"

"I'm sorry, but it's not. I wish it were, because I have actually missed you," I replied. "I've come to ask for a favor. In return, I'm willing to negotiate to help you in any way within _my_ powers."

"And what would your powers consist of?" T'Challa asked me.

"Powers over electricity, fire, fire portals, expert marksmanship, expert combatant, enhanced healing, agility, speed, and strength, and proven genius-level intellect; I have been able to out-maneuver Tony Stark's technology to keep the rebels one step ahead of him for most of this war, Sir," I replied.

"What would you want?" He asked.

"If you were willing to give me access to vibranium…"

"Sophie, that is a sacred material here in Wakanda," Ororo cut me off.

"I understand. I was just hoping that if I could work with it, work it into some of my armor tech for the guys, it would keep them safer."

T'Challa looked at Ororo and I wasn't sure what was transpiring between them. Finally, he looked at me.

"I have a counter-proposal for you. If you complete this task, you will prove that you are trust-worthy and willing to give before you ask for anything in return."

"I understand. What is the task?"

"You said you can open portals?" T'Challa asked me.

I nodded.

"I'm sure you are aware of Bill Foster's untimely death, are you not?"

"I heard about it when I broke out of Stark's prison, yes."

"We want to give him a Wakandan state funeral, but with Ororo being American-born, it is complicated for us to return to the United States. We are not sure if Mr. Stark will try to force the registration on her. So we would like _you_ to open a portal, retrieve Mr. Foster's body, and open another portal to bring it to us here," T'Challa explained. "In twelve hours, without anyone knowing."

Bill Foster was in his Goliath form when he died. That would be the biggest mass I'd ever portaled by myself. I didn't know how that would affect me. I looked at my watch, which was still on my home timezone. It was late. I called my sword to me. When it was in my hand, I nodded to the rulers of Wakanda and opened the portal, disappearing.

Standing over Bill's grave, it hit me that he was gone. He was a brilliant man, one of Hank's protégé's, like I was to Tony, only Hank never turned on him. I found a bulldozer and a crane, hotwiring them to dig up the grave and pull his body out. Once his body was out and I replaced the dirt, which gave me a little time to regenerate my energy I put the construction equipment back where I'd taken it from. I went back to Bill's body and put all my focus into opening the largest fire portal I had ever opened in my life. When the portal closed, I briefly saw the look of worry on Ororo's face. Putting my hand to my nose, I saw the blood and then everything went black.

Ororo was holding a cool washcloth to my head that had an herby scent to it when I woke up. I tried to sit up, but she didn't let me. Instead, I put my hand to my nose and was relieved there was no blood.

"You should have told T'Challa that as Goliath that mass was more than you've ever tried to move at once, Sophie. You could have hurt yourself severely," Ororo said to me.

"He asked me for one thing in exchange for me getting what I need to upgrade the tech for my guys. I couldn't say no."

"What about the risk to your health?"

"I heal really quick," I said smirking at her.

"Now you sound like Wolverine," she said back to me with a slight smile. "What if you did not just have to worry about your health."

"I know that's not a problem, Ororo," I said quietly.

She looked at me and her instincts kicked in. She was a descendant of witch-priestesses.

"You are so young to have to go through something so terrible, Child."

"You are one of only a handful of people outside of my people who know. Steve and I decided to keep it that way."

"That's right, you married Captain America. I forget that being so far away from America sometimes. I'm sorry. I'm sorry both of you are dealing with this."

"It was because of Stark's torture tactics while he held me in the prison 42, in the negative zone. He called it 'interrogations,' but he tortured me every day, Ororo. He is the reason I have power of electricity now. The amount of electricity I've had pumped into my body intentionally and unintentionally by him has been astronomical. It's bad enough that I was able to absorb a blow of lightning from Thor with Mjolnir on Asgard," I said with some anger in my voice.

"Sophie, you must not let the anger consume you. Last time, I know what happened."

"I know, Ororo. I'm trying. I'm focusing on the lab, my tech; I'm only going into the field if it's necessary right now. I'm training our team, gearing them up, preparing them for the battle, and doing what me and Bucky were supposed to do when this war started, be support."

"You are friends with the Winter Soldier?" T'Challa said coming into the room. "He is a wanted war criminal."

"He is a different person than he was when he committed most of his crimes. I found a way to give his memories back a little more than a year ago and he's been a different person since. I give you my word, Your Majesty, The Winter Soldier is no longer the threat that he once was."

"Why should I believe that coming from his friend?"

"Because he is more than my friend. He is my family. There is a blood-tie between the Winter Soldier and I. I swear on my own life, that he is no threat to you or your country as long as you do not pose a threat to him," I replied.

"Are you threatening me and my kingdom?"

"No; never!" I exclaimed. "I'm only saying, Your Majesty, that like you, the Winter Soldier is now a man like any other. He values his friends and family, neither of which is many in numbers. But also like any other man with power, if he feels those he cares about are threatened, he will fight back. All I'm saying is that he has no reason to come after you. He has no issue with your kingdom. I'd stake my life on this."

"T'Challa, do not misunderstand her words, she is only saying that as long as we stay clear of the Winter Soldier's business he will stay clear of ours, a reasonable warning, my love. Sophie is young and does not understand our culture or ways. Forgive her any missteps she may have. She does not mean anything by them. After all, she took on your request without question or complaint at great risk to herself," Ororo said, pacifying the situation, which I gave a grateful smile for.

"This is true. And for this reason, I will give you the vibranium. But you did not specify an amount," T'Challa said.

"Because I did not want to be pushy or demanding. I know you are a country that tends to stay to yourselves. I figured if I was going to ask, I would accept whatever, if any, vibranium you were willing to offer me. And now, learning it is sacred to you, I will be even more grateful for anything you give to me," I replied to him.

"Fine. Get some rest. We will bring you something to eat and your other weapons when you wake, along with the vibranium," T'Challa said.

"Thank you," I said, bowing my head to him, as he left the room.

"Before you go back to sleep, you might want to check your phone. It's been going off quite often," Ororo said before following her husband out the door.

 **Bucky's POV:**

It had been two days since we'd seen Sophie. We knew she hadn't been arrested again, but we had no idea where she was. She wasn't answering calls or texts. Suddenly, my phone went off.

 _Happy 100_ _th_ _Birthday, Bucky! I'll be home later or tomorrow. I need to rest before I can open another portal. I burned myself out. Will explain when home._

"Brat," I said with a small laugh looking at my phone.

"I take it that was Sophie?" Steve asked, coming down to the lab, where I was looking through some files.

"Yeah, how'd you know?"

"She's pretty much the only one you call a brat, Buck. What'd she say?"

I gave him the phone.

"She disappears, but she still remembers to rub in it's your 100th birthday? Should I be afraid next year?" He asked with a smile.

"Very, Steve. Be very afraid," I said, laughing. "I checked all the cell towers in the States. Wherever she is right now, she's not Stateside. That's why she needs the rest. She's probably been portal-hopping around too much. Wore herself out. At least she's not in this country where Stark can find her."

"Thank God for small favors, huh?"

"Yeah, I guess so," Bucky said. "So how are you holding up?"

"We've still got work to do, but knowing that we made some headway when Sophie took Stark's tech down helped. I'd just like to see her. I hate going this long without seeing her. After what's happened to her…"

"I know, Steve. I don't like her going off like this either, but she needs to know we trust her. And she can defend herself in a fair fight. The two times she was arrested were extenuating circumstances. She's okay. We heard from her. Now, I would suggest clearing the house for the next day or so. We don't need anyone remembering it's her birthday. Given what happened, she's not gonna want to feel obligated to celebrate like last year."

"And you don't want them knowing it's your birthday, either, do ya, Buck?"

"That may be an added perk," I said, smirking at him. "But you know she doesn't need to feel the pressure of having to celebrate right now."

"You're right."

"Besides, I have something I want to show you."

"What is it?"

"Come with me."

I led Steve through the teleporter, to a new destination on the menu, one that until this point, only I'd known about. I brought Steve upstairs and showed him the house and property. He seemed to like it.

"What is this, Buck?"

I tossed him the keys.

"Consider it a late wedding present," I said to him.

"Where are we?"

"Part of the Appalachians in Massachusetts. Ten acres of land, off the grid, nearest neighbor is a few miles away."

"How did you do this?"

"I've actually owned this for quite a few years. Apparently, I used this as one of my safehouses for decades. Nobody ever found me here. I just had studied Sophie's tech and added it in while she was in 42. It was a distraction while we were waiting to make a move. Now, I'm giving it to the two of you," I said to my best friend. "Our place in New York will always be _ours_ , Steve, but you and Sophie are married now. You need a place of your own. Even if you don't fully move in right now, this place is just for you. I'm the only other person who knows it's connected to the teleporter. It's a place you and your wife can come to be alone if you need to be."

Steve looked at me, speechless.

"I don't know what to say, Buck."

"Thank you is good enough, Steve."

"Thanks, Buddy."

"Just take care of her," I said as I hugged him and took him back to New York.

 **Steve's POV:**

It was almost eleven thirty at night when Sophie appeared in the yard, with a large crate in tow. Bucky and I ran down to her to help her, she looked a little pale. After we settled her on the couch, we opened the crate, and I recognized what it contained.

"Sophie, how did you get this?"

"What is this, Steve?"

"Buck, this crate, it's full of vibranium," I said in awe.

Bucky looked at Sophie in awe like I was.

"Sophie, tell me you didn't do anything to cause this civil war to turn into a world war?" Bucky asked her.

She drank some water and I noticed her nose was bleeding. I handed her a tissue, but I was worried about that.

"No, I didn't. But I'm probably going to sleep for a day or so after everything I've done in the last two days," she said. "I was given the vibranium by the King and Queen of Wakanda."

"How'd you pull that off? They're not exactly an open-trade country, Sophie," I said to my wife.

"I know the Queen of Wakanda. At least I knew her when she was part of the X-Men. It was why I needed to do all of this on my own. Storm and Cyclops helped me escape the guys from the lab during a close call in the city. They brought me to Professor Xavier and I stayed at the school for a few months, until I felt like I was becoming a threat to everyone there. I felt like, if the guys from the lab found me, they would have a field day with all the mutants in the school. I left. But I never forgot them."

"So Storm just agreed to this?" Bucky asked.

"No, I had to complete a task for the King, T'Challa."

"What was it?" I asked her.

"I can't tell anyone. That was part of the deal. I had twelve hours to complete the task, without telling anyone, and he would grant me the vibranium. It just wore me out a lot worse than moving the vibranium, so I needed more time to rest, which is why I took so long to come home. I'm sorry, guys." Sophie said, the nosebleed finally stopping.

"We're just glad you're home safe," Bucky said.

"So what did you want with the vibranium?" I asked.

Sophie gave me a mischievous look.

"Well, it is the most versatile material on the planet…"


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten:**

 **Sophie's POV:**

It had been three weeks since my trip to Wakanda. I had retrofitted all of my team's uniforms with layers of vibranium woven into them, making them basically impervious while still breathable and easy to move in. My last project was a new cybernetic arm for Bucky. But before I did that, I needed some other materials. Using an algorithm to track the metal in his skeletal structure, it didn't take me long to figure out where he was. Once I knew, I opened a fire portal and teleported to him.

"How'd you find me, Kid?" he asked from the shadows.

"Adamantium isn't too hard to trace if you know what you're looking for, Logan," I replied.

Wolverine came out of the shadows, his adamantium claws out.

"So are you here to take me in, 'cause you know I'm not just gonna go peacefully."

"Fuck Stark and his registration act. I'm against him. Especially since he has a hard-on for trying to throw my husband and best friend in jail… not to mention what he's done to me in the last several months. He's no friend of mine anymore."

"You're starting to sound like me now," he said smirking.

"That's what Storm told me earlier this month when I visited her in Wakanda," I said smirking back.

"How'd you get to Wakanda being on the most-wanted list?"

"I'm the one who brought down S.H.I.E.L.D. and Stark's tech. I needed to move freely, so I hacked him and gave him one hell of a virus."

"Why'd you go to Wakanda?"

"What is the most versatile metal in the world, Logan?"

"You got Storm and Black Panther to give you vibranium?" he asked with doubt in his voice.

"Yes. And I wanted to ask you how to find adamantium. I can scan the United States on Stark's satellites without calling attention to myself because he's using them to scan for rogues anyway. I'm not finding any adamantium here but you…"

"You mean you left a trail for him to find?!" he asked getting pissed off.

"I doubt it. The algorithm wouldn't be noticed unless they're looking for it…"

We both heard it at the same time. Someone was coming. I looked at Logan.

"Go," I said quietly. "There's only one person coming, I'll meet you. This was my mistake, Logan. I'm sorry. I'll handle it."

Wolverine nodded and silently disappeared into the shadows, but I knew he wasn't far. He wasn't going to leave me to get captured. If I couldn't handle it, he was going to join the fight.

"Tony is watching his tech a little more carefully, Sophie. He noticed the algorithm, though he couldn't figure out what it was for," Rhodey said landing twenty yards from me. "What were you using his satellite for? Or would you rather wait until I get you back to 42 to answer that?"

My breath caught for a second and I refused to let the fear take over.

"I'm not going back there, Rhodey."

"How are you going to fight me, Rogers? You don't even have your bow and arrows."

I could feel the power over electricity start to pump through me. He went on the attack, shooting repulsors at me from his War Machine armor. I drew my sword, which he hadn't seen in the sheath on my back, and deflected the attack as he flew at me, trying to attack me more. We went back and forth. Finally, I kicked him off and threw my sword at him; I didn't expect the outcome. Not only did my Asgardian sword go through the War Machine armor, but when it hit the armor, a bolt of lightning hit the sword, frying the armor completely. Anything that the armor was recording about what Rhodey saw was gone. His GPS would be disabled.

"Fuck!" I exclaimed in a panic, running to Rhodey.

Logan met me by him. I was about to use my sword to try to cut the armor in half when he stopped me.

"He's dead, Sophie. We need to get out of here. Now. Before Stark sends reinforcements."

I was in shock, but I nodded. I opened a portal and grabbed Logan's hand. He led the way because my mind was overwhelmed.

 **Clint's POV:**

Sophie came back a few days after the announcement was made that Rhodey was dead. Stark had accused her. She was withdrawn, spending most of her time in the lab working on a project. She wouldn't even train other members of the team.

"Sophie?"

"Yeah, Dad?" she said, not looking up from her project.

"Got a few minutes? I brought you lunch," I said to her.

She hesitated before finally putting her tools down. Sitting with me, she started to eat.

"It's true. What Stark said about you and Rhodey?"

"Yes and no."

"What do you mean?"

"I had hacked his satellite to track someone, using an algorithm he couldn't figure out, he just saw the location. He sent Rhodey to check it out. I had the person stay out of sight while I confronted Rhodey, since it was my mistake, and then Rhodey attacked. But I didn't assassinate him because of my time in 42, even if he _was_ threatening to send me back. I threw my sword at him and when it hit him a bolt of lightning hit at the same time frying the suit. I wanted to cut him out, but the person I met with told me he was already dead. I didn't expect the sword to go through the suit that easily, Dad."

"Who were you with, Sophie?"

"Wolverine. I wanted to talk to him about adamantium."

"For what?"

"I'm making a new cybernetic arm for Bucky. I want it to be mixed adamantium and vibranium. It will still have the camo feature, but be indestructible."

"And you thought you covered your tracks?"

"The algorithm was such a minor change in the programming he already had his satellites running on. He had to be looking for it to find it. I'm just thankful it was minor to put in but complex to read, beyond Stark's capabilities. I don't need to be on Wolverine's shitlist. Enhanced healing or not, I'd rather not be torn to shreds."

"Stark is on a rampage."

"I know. He's gonna be gunning for all of us worse than ever because of my screw-up. I'm sorry, Dad," Sophie said, putting her food down and looking like she was completely broken. "None of us will be safe until this is resolved. Not even Mom and the kids."

"What are you suggesting?"

"We need to get them completely off the grid, away from us, away from anything they'd be able to track to either of us; possibly out of the country until all of this is over."

"We can't get them out, especially not out of the country. Stark's looking for them like he's looking for the rest of us. How are we supposed to do any of that?

"I might have a way. Give me a day or so."

 **Sophie's POV:**

Heimdall opened the bifrost for me and when I entered Asgard, Thor was waiting for me.

"What is wrong, Sophie?" Thor asked me.

"I need help, but I think the All-Father should give permission. He has permitted me to enter Asgard freely and I don't want to anger him now," I explained.

"It must be serious if you are asking Odin for help."

"Very. I messed up and Tony Stark's best friend is dead because of it. Stark is on a witch hunt for all of us now. I need to hide my mother and siblings. I wanted to ask the All-Father if perhaps you could move them somewhere safe, anywhere that either of you deemed worthy, without my knowledge."

"I will bring you to the All-Father now," Thor said in a somber tone.

Odin granted me an audience with him and I explained my situation. He thought about what I was asking him and ultimately agreed, with a condition.

"In return, I ask that after your war is over you return to Asgard for one year to begin your training as a member of the Asgardian Guard. That is my offer," he said to me.

"It is a fair offer. I accept," I replied.

"Sophie, do you not think you should discuss this with the Captain first?" Thor asked.

"He will understand, Thor. If he can't understand that I will do anything for those I love, than our marriage will not last anyway," I said sadly, looking into my friend's eyes.

Thor nodded at me before Odin had him bring me back to my house to get my family. When we stepped out of the bifrost on my front lawn, Dad, Bucky, and Steve were shocked to see Thor.

 **Steve's POV:**

"Thor, what are you doing here?" I asked.

"I've come to bring Sophie home. She was just in Asgard, having an audience with Odin," Thor replied.

"Sophie?" Clint asked.

"What's going on?" Bucky asked.

I looked at my wife, seeing the effects the war was taking on her. Rhodey's death was an accident and now she was worried all the time that she was going to get the rest of us killed. She was distancing herself from the team, spending more and more time in the lab on her own. But seeing her at Thor's side, I was worried.

"I've made arrangements for Mom and the kids. Odin has agreed to put them under Asgardian protection, moving them somewhere without our knowledge, until it is safe for us to bring them home," Sophie said.

"Soph, Odin didn't seem the something-for-nothing type of guy. What did he want in return? What did you agree to?" Bucky asked the question I was dreading the answer to.

Sophie wouldn't look at me. She looked at Bucky when she answered.

"When our war here is over, I'm going to spend a year on Asgard to begin my training as one of the members of the Asgardian Guard."

"Sophie! You can't just leave, you're married!" Clint exclaimed.

I couldn't bring myself to speak.

"I can't risk Mom, Cooper, Lila, or Nathaniel because _I killed Rhodey_. If going away for a year will keep them alive and safe, then it's worth it. I can't lose anyone I love. I can't lose Mom again," Sophie said.

I couldn't argue with her. After believing she lost her once, how could I leave her in a position where she was in constant fear of losing her again… Especially after her mother nearly died on her for real just a few months ago.

"I understand why you agreed to this, Sophie. It's alright," I said, finally speaking up.

"Steve!" Bucky exclaimed.

"Bucky, no," I started. "You saw first-hand what happened to Sophie when she thought she lost Anya. If this guarantees not only her safety but that of her brothers and sister, than I will support the decision. I know that Thor will not let Sophie get hurt. If we could survive untold horrors happening to her while she was in custody, not knowing when we'd get her back, we can survive a year of her being with Thor for training. I love her too much to take that safety away from her."

"Steve, are you sure?" Clint asked.

"Go get Anya and the kids. They should be moved sooner than later," I said to him.

"Thank you, Steve. You have no idea what a relief it is to know that they'll be somewhere Stark can't find and hurt them," Clint said to me.

 _A few hours later:_

I found Sophie in our bedroom. She had hidden away in there after I agreed with her choice of keeping her mother and siblings safe. She was sitting in one of our chairs by the window, just staring out, when I came into the room. As I got closer, I saw that there were tears on her face.

"What can I do to make this better for you, Sophie?" I asked my wife.

Sophie wouldn't look at me. Her tears were still silently falling.

"Keep them all safe, Steve. I keep making mistakes, even though I'm trying my best to do the right thing. People are getting hurt, dying, and I can't stop it. Help me keep them all safe. If anything happens to my family… Any of you… I don't know what I'll do."

I turned Sophie's face to look at me. Using my thumbs, I wiped her tears from her cheeks. My heart was breaking for her, knowing that she blamed herself for everything that was happening.

"I promise you that I will do everything I can to keep them all safe, Sophie. You included," I said before I offered her my hand. "Now come on, Thor thinks that it would be best if you accompanied your mother and siblings to Asgard before Odin moves them."

"Steve… I don't think I should…"

"Sophie, they know Thor, but they're going to Asgard for the first time and they've never been around Odin. They're being sent somewhere without you or Clint, they need you to be there to see them off," I said gently.

Sophie looked down at her hands for a minute. Her shoulders were slumped over. I could feel her pain radiating off of her. Finally, she sighed and got up from the chair, looking at me after I put my arms around her.

"You're right. I have to do this."

I could see how much all of this was paining her.

"We'll get them home as soon as we can. Just reassure them that this is the safest thing for them while we handle what's going on."

"Thank you, Steve. I love you so much and I'm sorry I agreed to train with the Asgardian Guard without talking to you."

"Sophie, you needed to protect your mother and siblings. What kind of husband would I be to deny you that?"

"Even though I will have to leave for so long? We've been married for such a short amount of time and the whole time we've been looking over our shoulders. I mean, we haven't even really had any time for ourselves since we got married, Steve. And the first opportunity we _would have_ had, I took away without even talking to you. Thor tried to tell me I should, but I wouldn't listen to him. I was so scared for Mom, Cooper, Nathaniel, and Lila. I'm so sorry," Sophie said looking away from me again.

"Sophie, I know how deeply you care about the people you love. Even if other people only see the exterior you want them to see of the tough girl who trained under the Winter Soldier. I see _you_. I see how much you love, how much you hurt when those you care about are hurt or in danger. I truly believe that if you had time to talk to me about this choice, if your mother and siblings' safety didn't hang in the balance, you would have. So you have no reason to apologize to me. I love you more for this, for doing anything you have to in order to protect those you love, for making the hard decisions for the greater good," I said to her.

"When I first found out about you, Sophie, when we were first given the mission to hunt you down and I had to pull your father out of retirement, you were just an assignment, a dangerous criminal that needed to be stopped. It wasn't until after I saw the way you were willing to give yourself over to us for anything we wanted to do at the Avengers' Base as long as we released Bucky that I realized there was more to you. Then, when I found the real reason you were doing what you were doing when we caught you… That these people had hurt your mother, made you think she was dead, I realized you were just someone who was in a lot of pain and just trying to make the people who had made the life of you and your mother nothing but pain pay for what they had done to you. You were trying to stop the monsters who had hurt you. It changed everything in how I saw you.

"But I knew I loved you when you risked everything to save Bucky when he went missing. Your instincts told you that something was wrong and you were right. You fought your father because you knew that if we tried any other plan but yours, we would risk losing Bucky forever. And when you came with us and got him out, even though you got injured in the process, which you didn't even care about, it made me fall in love with you, Sophie. Seeing you caring for him, even though you were recovering from being shot by the time I got back to the rendezvous point, made me realize that you were never what we initially thought. Not only that, you gave me my best friend back when you gave Bucky his memories back after we rescued him. I never thought I'd have someone. By that point it there was no denying that I would love you for the rest of our lives and would do anything for you. You were just someone who loved deeply and was forced to harden your exterior to protect yourself from what life had done to you. Remember this every day, Sophie. Because no matter what difficult decision you need to make to protect your family, this is what I will remember… _why_ I fell in love with you."

Sophie kissed me and then held me for a moment.

"Has anyone told you you're perfect, Rogers?" she asked me.

"I'm not perfect, Sophie."

"Sometimes, I wonder if you're too good to me, Steve," she said, before she kissed me again and walked out our bedroom and started down to the yard where her family was waiting for her.

 **Sophie's POV**

Steve followed me down to where Dad, Mom, Lila, Nathaniel, and Cooper were waiting with Thor. My family looked nervous, even Dad, who was trying to reassure the others that everything was fine. I walked over to them and picked up Nathaniel. Lila hugged me as soon as I had him securely in my arms. Cooper was looking at me.

"I'm sorry, Cooper."

"Did you really kill Tony Stark's best friend because they put you in jail for breaking the law, Sophie? Is that why we're being sent away?"

"Cooper!" Dad admonished him.

I took a deep breath to calm myself and keep myself from crying. Cooper accusing me of killing Rhodey for the reasons Stark was spewing to the world hurt more than knowing that I was going to be away from my family for a year when the war ended to fulfill my end of the bargain to Odin so he'd protect my family during the war. It was hard having a teenaged brother whose mood could be anywhere on the spectrum on any given day.

"I'm having you, Lila, Nathaniel, and my mom moved somewhere safe because of what happened between me and Rhodey, Cooper, yes. But it's not what you think."

"Right," Cooper said.

"When have I ever lied to you Cooper?"

"When you said your mother was dead!"

"I thought she was, Cooper! I was made to believe she was dead! I never lied about anything intentionally! I told you things when Dad thought it was better, but I didn't lie to you, Cooper. You're my brother, the first person to make me realize that you don't actually have to _know_ someone to know that they're your blood, your family, and that you should take care of them. _You_ taught me that the day I got the stuffed hawk from you. I didn't understand what it meant until Dad explained how much that stuffed animal had meant to you, Cooper. So I've tried to be a good sister to you. I've tried to be honest, even if it hurt to talk about things. I don't want to do anything to hurt you… any of you."

"Then what happened, Sophie?" Cooper asked.

Dad shook his head no. I looked at him and I knew my eyes were pained. I shook my head at him and he took Lila and Nathaniel, along with Mom, giving me and Cooper a minute to talk.

"I was meeting with someone I knew, someone I wanted to see if he could help me find some supplies. Rhodey showed up because I had used a Stark satellite to track the person and Stark found the sequence in the satellite codes. _Yes_ , James Rhodes _did_ threaten to put me back in jail. And _yes_ , that idea terrifies me, Cooper. The things that go on in that prison… the things that they _did to_ _me_ in that prison…" my voice trailed off and I was lost in thought for a minute. Snapping out of it, I continued, "Anyway, he tried to attack, so he could capture me. I fought back. I used my sword, but I didn't know it would go completely _through_ the War Machine armor or that lightning would strike the sword when it made contact with the suit."

I dropped my head into my hands. I had started crying.

"I _tried_ to save him, Cooper. I _wanted_ to cut him out of the suit and try to save him, but my friend told me he was already dead. So we teleported out of there before Stark could send anyone to try to find Rhodey," I said, still looking at my hands. "It didn't matter what happened to me in those prisons, Cooper. Rhodey used to be my _friend_. He was doing his job. He was bound by duty to his country and his friendship to Stark above all else. I don't think he'd do anything like the others on Stark's side have been doing if the laws hadn't been passed. I _never_ wanted him dead, Cooper. He was my _friend_ before all of this started. I didn't want to kill him. I didn't do it intentionally. But I can't take it back, either. It's something I have to live with for the rest of my life. I just can't let you or Lila, or Nathaniel, or Mom pay for my mistake. That's why I'm having you moved somewhere that me and Dad can't know. We're both part of this fight. We can't leave. But the four of you aren't safe anywhere that Stark or anyone involved in this fight can find you. I'm sorry, Cooper."

Cooper lifted my chin so he could look into my eyes.

"What did they do to you while you were in jail, Sophie?"

I took a deep breath. I still couldn't talk about it much.

"I can't really talk about it. I've barely talked about it to Dad or Mom or even Steve and Bucky. But they hurt me, Cooper. A lot. They know how quickly I heal, so they would do horrible and cruel things to me to try to find Bucky, Steve, and then even Dad and the others who fight alongside us."

Cooper looked angry.

"Stark let them hurt you?" he growled. "He used to be your friend too!"

I nodded, not wanting to talk about it anymore.

"I can't worry about what Stark is up to, now that he's really out for my blood, knowing he might go after all of you. I'm sorry, Cooper. I know that things haven't been easy for you since I came into your life. But I promise you, Thor and his father are going to make sure all of you are somewhere safe until this is over and it's safe for you to come home."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. The All-Father, Thor's father, made a deal with me. In exchange for protecting you, I will join the Asgardian Guard. When this is over, I will spend a year in Asgard training."

"You did that for us?"

"I would do anything for my family, Cooper."

Cooper nodded and me. I signaled Dad and the others over. As I stood with Thor, Dad said goodbye to Cooper. It was heartbreaking to watch. Dad and Cooper had gotten really close when he had gone into retirement both times. Seeing him, getting ready to let his son go, not knowing when he'd be able to get him back, the pain of it made me want to find a way to end the war as fast as we could.

 **Stark's POV**

Hill walked into my office. I had scotch in my hand.

"What are you doing, Stark? We need to find the Rogers, the Winter Soldier, and their resistance, and you're sitting here _drinking_?"

"In case you forgot, Hill, I lost my best friend because of this."

"I know that, Stark. Sophie Rogers _murdered_ him because she is a _criminal_. One that we need to stop by any means necessary…"

"You don't get it, do you, Maria? _You_ aren't out there doing a damn thing. It's me and _my_ team doing all the dirty work. It's me and _my_ team out there taking all the hits and losses. We've listened to you and where has it gotten us? Friend against friend, husband against wife… and for what? We're killing each other for this act and neither side is getting anywhere."

"You're drunk Stark."

"Sophie Rogers is a brilliant mind. She may be reckless when it comes to Bucky Barnes, but even before we took her into custody, she'd never hurt innocent bystanders. What if there is more to the story in the Sudan than we all know? What if she was telling the truth?"

"Do you really believe that the woman who just murdered your best friend in cold blood may have told you the truth about blowing up a village square?"

"I don't know what to believe anymore, Hill! Just get out of my damn office! I can't deal with you right now. I'm mourning my best friend."

Hill stormed out of my office, slamming the door behind her. A few minutes later, Reed came into my office.

"Any luck trying to recover any data from the War Machine armor?" I asked him.

"Tony, I'm sorry, but no. The voltage of electricity that was shot into the armor fried all the circuitry beyond repair. There is no way of recovering any of the data from the armor."

"Is there anything you _can_ tell me?"

"I'm not sure that Sophie shot the electricity into the armor directly."

I sat up, curious about his theory. After Rhodey had died, I couldn't bring myself to be the one to do any work on his armor so I had asked Reed.

"What do you mean? What did you find?"

"Based on the damage to the armor, the electricity emanates from the point of impact from whatever pierced the armor, almost as if that was the conductor."

"Her arrows can't pierce the armor."

"Whatever pierced his armor, it was a strong material, obviously some kind of metal since it conducted the electricity, but it pierced not just the front of the armor, Tony. It went straight _through_ it. There is an exit hole on the back of the armor. Neither arrows nor daggers, Sophie Rogers' weapons of choice, could have gone straight through the armor front to back."

"Were you able to find any traces of the metal?"

"No. That is another thing I found odd. Typically there would be some trace of the metal somewhere on the armor, most likely on the back of the armor, because any traces in the front would have been incinerated by the electricity. But I checked the armor thoroughly and there were absolutely no metallic traces that were not part of the War Machine armor itself."

"Did you test magnetism or radiation levels for any clues?"

"The results were inconclusive."

"What do you mean, inconclusive?"

"I mean, the readings didn't match anything we've seen before, Tony."

 **Bucky's POV**

The alert on my phone went off to say someone entered the property. I went to the front of the house and found a guy who looked like he belonged at a bar in the driveway.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"I'm looking for Sophie. I have something for her," he replied, ignoring my question.

"I'm not going to ask you again. Who are you?"

"Listen, Bub, I'm here to see Sophie Holden. I don't know who you are, but you don't want any trouble with me."

I was getting ready to attack him when Sophie came out of the house.

"Logan? How did you find me?" she asked going over to the intruder.

He pointed to his nose and she laughed.

"I should have figured. Hiding out with you for a few days, it makes sense you'd have picked up my scent."

"I have a present for you, Kid," he said, handing her a duffle bag.

"Come on in, Logan."

"I don't think your attack dog wants me to."

"Sophie, who is this?" I asked.

"Bucky, this is Logan…"

"You mean Wolverine?" I asked, cutting her off.

"How the hell do you know who I am?"

"I helped you. A long time ago. Helped you escape the Weapon X program."

"Sorry, Bub, but my memories aren't that great."

"It's okay. Mine weren't until a little over a year ago either."

"Great, so you both know each other. Come on in, Logan," Sophie said.

Sophie led me and Logan into the house. Steve was coming up from the basement. He was surprised when he saw Sophie's friend.

"Wolverine. Long time, no see. Welcome. What can we do for you?"

"Nice to see you too, Cap," Logan replied.

Sophie held up the duffle bag.

"Logan brought me something," she said.

"Well, what is it?" I asked.

We all went into the living room together. She put the duffle bag down on the floor and opened it. She looked from the bag to Logan.

"Logan, is this?"

"Yeah, Kid. I figured I'd help you out. I thought it might cheer you up a bit after everything that's been going on," he said.

"Will you two fill the rest of us in on what's going on?" I asked.

"It's the adamantium I was looking to get. The last thing I needed to make a new arm for you, Bucky," Sophie said, excitement in her voice for the first time since before Rhodey's death.

"I thought you were going to use the vibranium," I replied.

"I wanted to use a vibranium/adamantium mix. It's the same mix Steve's shield is made of. Your new arm will be lightweight, versatile, and I will still be able to add in all the tech that I have in this one," she explained.

"Sophie, this arm is great. You don't have to make me a new one. This one is less than two years old."

"So Bub here gets new parts every couple of years?" Logan asked.

"I want to make sure that his arm can withstand anything, Logan. I don't want there to be any vulnerabilities that Stark can try to exploit. That's why I want to change the design. I was still working out of Stark's lab when I made the arm he has now. He knows the general idea of what the design is and what it can do."

"Good reason for an upgrade, Kid."

"So, Wolverine, how long are you gonna stay with us?" I asked.

"I wasn't planning on it," he replied.

"Would you mind staying for a bit though, Logan? I could use your expertise on adamantium and maybe you could help Steve and Bucky train the Secret Avengers? I don't have time to do it anymore. I'm always in the lab," Sophie asked.

"Listen Kid, I haven't been a team player in a while…"

"You're one of the best fighters I've ever met. Right up there with Bucky and Steve. I think you could be a real help. You don't have to stay for long, just long enough to give me time to work on the arm."

"I'll do it on one condition, Kid."

"What?"

"You get the fuck out of that lab and show me why you think I should help these guys train their team."

Sophie looked at her hands. The two of us hadn't trained together since before Rhodey died. She hadn't trained with Steve either. So it had been a while since she had trained with both of us together. I knew she wanted to make the new arm for me, but was she willing to pick up a weapon again?

"Wolverine, Sophie hasn't trained for a bit. She's been… distracted," Steve tried to explain.

"All the more reason for her to get off her ass, get out of her lab, and do some training," Wolverine replied.

Sophie sighed.

"Fine, Logan. Then you're spending the night and we'll do this tomorrow. I'm not doing this without preparations. I've been in the lab for weeks. You can stay in my old room. We'll show you, or it seems more like remind you, why I think you should help Steve and Bucky train the others in the morning."

"This should be good," Wolverine said with a smirk on his face.

I wasn't sure if I wanted to punch the smirk off his face or thank him for getting Sophie to agree to leave the lab.

 **Steve's POV:**

When I woke up in the morning, I found Sophie sitting in the chair by the window. She had already showered and was dressed in clothes she could train in.

"Sophie?"

"What if I can't do this? I've been in the lab for so long, Steve."

"You need this. You're a warrior. We all know this. Me, Bucky, Clint, Thor, Odin, and apparently even Wolverine. I've been worried that you've been shutting yourself in your lab since the accident."

"I don't trust myself in battle right now, Steve. What if what happened with Rhodey happens again?"

"All the more reason to continue your training. So you make sure that it doesn't happen again," I started. "Sophie, what happened to Rhodey was a tragedy, it was horrible, but it was an _accident_. You weren't trying to kill him. You have to forgive yourself before something worse happens to someone on the team or to you."

There was a knock on the door and Clint came in.

"He's right, Sophie. Come on, come downstairs with me and have breakfast while Steve gets ready for this training session."

Sophie looked to me and I nodded at her. She got up and went with Clint as I got myself ready.

 **Clint's POV:**

After Sophie, Steve, and Bucky got themselves ready for training, we all went out onto the lawn with Wolverine. As they were getting themselves armed, I could tell Sophie was hesitating. I walked over to her.

"What's wrong?" I asked her.

"What if something goes wrong, Dad? What if I hurt Steve or Bucky? They're both my _family_."

"Sophie, take a deep breath. The weight of the world isn't on your shoulders alone. This is a training exercise. You've done it a million times before. You and Bucky will heal before it's over. Steve will heal soon after. Just remember that you are in control of your movements, both with your body and your weapons. You can do this. I believe it's still in you to control your abilities and spar without being a danger. Hell, I think you could be in the field with me safely. I just haven't wanted to push you. You've had to grow up too fast as it is. What happened with Rhodey had a huge impact on you. I didn't want to push you to go back into the field before you were ready. Just know you're missed," I said as I gave her a kiss on the cheek.

Sophie took a deep breath and gave me a look of determination. After putting her bow and quiver on her back and her daggers in their holsters, she turned and walked away from me. I walked back over to Wolverine.

"So what should I expect from these three?" he asked me.

"Bucky trained Sophie as an assassin. Steve is a super-soldier, Bucky's best friend and Sophie's husband. They've brought him up to speed on their brutal training techniques since this war started. This is a no-holds barred sparring match. Get comfortable, it might go on for a bit."

"Why do you say that?"

"Sophie, even though she's so much younger and has much less experience, can hold her own with either of them. They'll probably spar to a draw in a couple of hours."

"Really? Even with them using really weapons? Nobody comes out on top?"

"Steve's beaten Sophie once. The first time he sparred with her. But once she started sparring with Bucky again, he hasn't been able to beat her since."

"We'll see about this stand-off."

The three combatants started their sparring session. Steve had his shield. Bucky and Sophie both had daggers in their hands, in addition to their holstered weapons. As the three of them started sparring, it was clear that Sophie was not only holding back, but it was difficult to keep up with the fray.

"She's holding back. Why?"

"She hasn't trained in weeks. Not since the incident where Rhodey died. She blames herself for it and the fact that her mother and siblings are somewhere in the galaxy under Asgardian protection until this war is over."

"She wasn't trying to kill him. She _was_ scared of him. When he mentioned bringing her back to 42, I could smell her fear. What happened to Stark's lackey wasn't her fault. She tried to save him. It was too late."

"We've all tried to explain that to her. But Stark has had it out for her since the act went into effect because it was an explosion in the Sudan… A mission that she and Bucky were on that went wrong, that led to the registration act. She was arrested the first time while she was unconscious in the middle of the blast zone. We still don't know what he did to her while he had her. She won't tell us. We _do_ know that she was pregnant and he knew it while she was at 42… And they tortured her so badly that she lost the baby.

"Since all of this has happened, Sophie, Steve, and Bucky were at the top of the most-wanted list. Sophie is the only one they've caught. The first time while she was unconscious. The second, they sent Deadpool after her while she went on a rescue mission for her brother and sister to save me from going because I had left the fight. Because her mother, Anya… she was the resistance doctor before being taken into Asgardian custody… she was sick and nearly died. She lost a kidney, her appendix, and _our_ baby. Sophie took it hard because Anya asked her to operate on her instead of letting us take her to a hospital. She was worried about the precautions to keep Stark and his hound dogs off of us.

"Now, with what happened with Rhodey, things are worse than ever. She's only nineteen years old, been married for less than a year, already had a miscarriage, and to protect her mother and siblings, she's agreed to join the Asgardian Guard when this is over so Odin would protect our family," I said, finally looking away from Sophie, Steve, and Bucky, into Wolverine's eyes. "The kids who came to the X-Men for help with their powers, they almost always had a past, one with many horrors. She's not the same kid you apparently met years ago, Wolverine. Life has hardened her to cope with so much, but this war… I'm scared it might tear her apart beyond repair. I don't know how much more of this she can take."

"I'll get her to stop holding back," Wolverine said, running into the fray that was Steve, Sophie, and Bucky.

Sure enough, Sophie stopped holding back. Even she didn't like the idea of being sliced to ribbons with Wolverine's adamantium claws. The four of them started having a free-for-all, trying to see who could best the other. Sophie even started using her powers as the sparring match went on, opening portals to get away from opponents or using electricity to shock them, at least with Steve or Wolverine, anyway. She was still very careful about shocking Bucky with her abilities.

About an hour after they started sparring, Steve, Sophie, and Bucky combined their efforts to get Wolverine down. The guys were all laughing about the match when they were walking back over to me, but I could tell Sophie was still distracted, even though she was between Steve and Bucky, her two best friends. She didn't have the same joy on her face she used to after sparring. I was worried.

 **Stark's POV:**

"Mr. Stark, I have an incoming video message for you from Sophie Rogers," said J.A.R.V.I.S.

I jumped up to my computer, knowing that J.A.R.V.I.S. wouldn't be able to block the transmission for long and that Sophie wouldn't keep the message going long enough for a trace.

"What do you want, Sophie? To brag about what you did to Rhodey?" I asked, looking at the girl I helped teach, who had killed my best friend.

She flinched at the words.

"No, Tony. I want to talk to you. In person. Just you and me."

"The Capsicle and his team are gonna let you do that?"

"They don't know I'm contacting you. Please, Tony. I've barely left my lab since what happened with Rhodey. It was an accident, and I want a chance to talk to you in person to tell you the truth about what happened. Regardless of what else has happened between us, you do deserve that closure. You gave my father the idea of trying to find my mother's body to give me closure. I want to give you the truth to give you closure."

"It won't bring Rhodey back Rogers!"

"No, it won't," she said quietly. "I wish that was within my power, but it's not. If it was, I would."

"How do you know I won't arrest you again?"

"Tony, if ever there was a time to just put aside this war, please do it now. You deserve to know the truth about what happened to Rhodey and I'm the only one who can tell you. You also know if you arrest me, I won't tell you anything, no matter what you do to me."

"Fine. When?"

"Tonight, after midnight so nobody notices me leaving. Meet me at Brooklyn Bridge Park. Pier 3, Greenway Terrace by the rocks at 1:30."

"Should I come unarmed?"

"I'm not gonna waste my time asking you to come unarmed when there are a million ways for you to hide weapons on you and I _am_ a living weapon. Just meet me alone. Please Stark."

"See you then."

The video message ended and I set to work, knowing I only had a few hours to get the device together. I was going to meet Sophie Rogers alone, I just wasn't letting her walk away from that meeting. She was going back to jail… especially after killing my best friend. I picked up my cell phone while I started working to call the person I would need backing me up in 42.

 **Sophie's POV:**

I was in my lab, putting the finishing touches on Bucky's new arm. Steve and Bucky came down to find out if I was going to bed yet.

"No. I'm almost done with Bucky's new arm. I wanna finish it tonight. When I finish it, I'll go to bed, guys."

"Are you sure Sophie?" Bucky asked. "The arm can wait another day."

"I'm sure. I'm good. You guys have had a long day. Get some rest. I'll be upstairs a little later."

Steve came over and gave me a kiss.

"Try not to stay up all night," he said to me.

"I will."

With that, Steve and Bucky left. I checked my watch. I had over an hour to get to the meeting point with Tony. As I ran a check on all the tech in Bucky's new arm to make sure it was operational, I took my portal frequencies off the alerts for the security system of our safe houses. When I was sure the tech was fully operational, I put Bucky's new arm in a locked closet and got myself ready to go see Tony. Being realistic about the possibility double-crossing me, I wrote letters to Dad, Steve, and Bucky, leaving them next to my computer, where I knew they'd look for me first if I didn't make it home. I couldn't leave them not knowing what happened to me if something went wrong.

 **Stark's POV:**

I showed up to meet Sophie before she got there to make sure I had a chance to set up my trap. It had been set up for a few minutes before Sophie actually showed up. She opened a portal on the other side of the pier, as if she was checking to make sure that I had met her alone. When she was sure I was, she made her way over to me.

"Thank you for meeting me alone, Tony. I've wanted to talk to you since this happened, but I haven't known what to say to you. Nothing I can say will bring him back," she said to me.

"So what did you want to tell me Sophie?"

"It feels like forever ago, but you used to be my mentor, Tony. I respected you. You were my friend…"

"Then you blew up a village square, Sophie! Because you were being wreckless over Barnes!"

"I don't deny I blew that village square, Tony, and those deaths on are my hands and conscience for the rest of my _life_. But Bucky had started acting weird. He wasn't responding on the comms. He started getting violent when some guys approached him, telling him he was _their_ property and they would remind him of that. They knew about his Winter Soldier programming. He freaked out. I blew cover to get him out, trying to stop anyone else from getting hurt, but I didn't know about the bombs, Tony, I swear it! If I had, I wouldn't have teleported! It would have meant a few more casualties, but saving the village square, but I would have found another way to stop Bucky! It wasn't until I got into the thick of it that I saw the bombs and realized what was going to happen. I got Bucky out of there because he couldn't be around _anyone_ in the condition he was in, but I didn't even have enough time to get myself out. That's the only reason you were able to arrest me the first time."

"How can you tell me that you didn't know about the bombs, Sophie? With your affinity for tech and electricity?"

"I didn't have as strong an affinity to electricity back then. _That_ , didn't happen until you ambushed Steve with Ragnorak at those peace talks. I didn't know the bombs were in the village square. If I had, why would I risk the possibility of killing both myself _and Bucky_ by opening a portal? I had never been in a blast zone before. I didn't know if I could survive that. Honestly, when I pushed Bucky through that portal, I was pretty sure I was going to die. Why would I have risked that intentionally? It's illogical, Tony."

"And attacking those who are registered?"

"Tony, do you realize what you and your registration team are doing to anyone who doesn't believe in this law? You're willing to kill and maim former friends, take away their constitutional rights, go after their families, _torture them_ , because they won't register," she said to me. "I don't know if it was you or Hill, or Natasha, but I know that the second time I was arrested, when Deadpool brought me in, one of you used my _uncle_ to kidnap my brother and sister to try to get to Dad, me, and Steve. Cooper and Lila, Tony. Two kids who are still mourning the suicide of their mother. _And_ , I _know_ that my medical records from 42 told you that I was pregnant, but you _still_ didn't stop having me tortured for information. Is this what that registration act stands for? Kidnapping innocent children? Torturing women into miscarriages? Attempting to kill registered superheroes who don't agree with the way the law is being enforced?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"I know about Spider-Man. I've talked to him. He told me what you did to him after he decided he couldn't help you enforce the law anymore. He's _registered_ , Tony. He's within the letter of the law and not only did you attack him, but you sent two supervillains after him. Bucky saved him and got him to a safehouse," she replied. "Is this the man you want to be? The man who has turned to torturing the people who were once closest to you? You made me lose mine and Steve's unborn child, Tony. My mother was so scared of going to the hospital she nearly died because one of her kidneys died, she had appendicitis, and she had a miscarriage. I had to do surgery on her! I was terrified I was going to kill her because she wouldn't _let_ us take her to the hospital. Doesn't any of this make you wonder if you're doing the right thing?"

"And you killed Rhodey, Sophie!"

"That was an accident! He went on the attack first, threatening to take me back to 42!"

"Then what happened, Sophie? Because it seems everything is an accident with you," I said sarcastically.

"I'm 19, Tony. I make mistakes. You made me miscarry. You're how old? And I know that wasn't a mistake. You were well aware of my pregnancy, even if I wasn't," she spat at me. "I have some new weapons. I threw one of them at Rhodey, trying to get some breathing room, to possibly just get out of there. But the weapon pierced the War Machine armor, front to back, Tony. When it made contact with the armor a bolt of lightning hit it as well."

She was crying.

"I wanted to save him. But he was already gone, Tony. So I left before you could send anyone to the last location you had him at to find me. Since then I stopped training members of our team. I've spent almost all of my time in my lab. I've essentially stopped training myself. I _don't_ want this, Tony. I _don't_ want this war. I _don't_ want to fight or kill anyone that I once cared about. I hate this."

"The only way to end this is for you, Steve, and Barnes to turn yourselves in, Sophie."

She looked at me like I'd slapped her.

"So you can lock us up and throw away the keys? No, Tony."

"Then you leave me no choice, Sophie…"

I hit a button on my armor and my trap came to life… then exploded. Something had gone severely wrong. And I had no idea where Sophie Rogers was.

"J.A.R.V.I.S., connect me to Black Widow in 42."

"Yes, Sir."

A minute later, Natasha picked up her phone.

"What is it, Stark?"

"Did Sophie Rogers appear at the prison?"

"No. Did you spring your trap on her?"

"Yeah, and it exploded. Natasha, I don't know where or _if_ Sophie Rogers is anymore."

"Are you telling me your device may have killed her?"

"I'm telling you that it's a decent probability. I'm not getting any scans of life or teleportation from where the device was set off."

"Stark, if Sophie Rogers is dead, you better be prepared for the fight of your life. Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes, and Clint Barton will stop at nothing to see you stopped. Barnes and Barton will stop at nothing to see you dead. I can only do so much to help you there. Barton is my former partner and Barnes helped to train me. We may be in way over our heads."

 **Clint's POV:**

I turned on the tv as I drank coffee from the coffee pot. There was a news bulletin on. Just as I was about to turn the tv off, I heard the name Sophie Rogers. I put the volume up.

"Once again, Sophie Rogers, fugitive superhuman wife of fugitive and leader of the superhuman resistance, Captain America, Steve Rogers, is believed to be dead. After a meeting between Mrs. Rogers and Tony Stark late last night took a turn to Mr. Stark trying to arrest Mrs. Rogers, Mr. Stark says the situation devolved and Sophie Rogers is believed to be dead. No body has been recovered at this time. What does this mean for the Superhuman Registration Act? What does this mean for the already tense relationship for the superhumans that are against this act towards Mr. Stark and his fellow registration-supporters?"

My legs gave out on me. Sophie might be dead?

"Steve! Bucky! Get down here!"

Within a minute, both men were in the living room, hearing the same report I just had.

"Steve, tell me my daughter is upstairs in bed?" I asked desperately.

Steve wasn't speaking. He looked as broken as I felt. Bucky looked homicidal. I got up and ran to her lab, Steve and Bucky close behind me. When we got there, we each found a letter. I opened mine.

 _Dad,_

 _I know you would never have let me do this, which is why I'm doing it without telling anyone. I'm going to meet Tony Stark tonight at Brooklyn Bridge Park. Even though I can never trust him again, he was once my mentor, the man who gave you the idea of finding mom's body to give me closure over her death. It lead to you being able to give me my mother back. He deserves to know the truth about what happened to Rhodey. I'm the only one who can give him that._

 _If I'm not back by morning, it means Stark double-crossed me and I am likely back in 42. I will find a way out as soon as I can. I have my sword with me, the one weapon that, even in 42, they cannot take from me. I'm sorry I left without telling anyone, but I didn't want anyone stopping me. I love you._

 _Love,_

 _Sophie_

"She went to meet Stark without telling us…" I started, then remembered her saying she might be in 42. "We need Victor. We need him to hack into the records for 42 to find out if she's really there and Stark is just lying to the media."

Bucky disappeared, reappearing moments later. Victor went right to the computer. After a few minutes he turned to us.

"I'm sorry. She's not in 42," he said, making my world crash.

 **Sophie's POV:**

I was trying to figure out what happened to me. I remembered Stark's device, which I guessed was to send me back to 42, malfunctioned and blew up. But I wasn't in 42, I wasn't home. I wasn't sure where the fuck I was. It was somewhere in NY.

Not sure what else to do, I watched what was going on. I wound up at the library. That's when I realized what happened. When Stark's machine blew up I must've teleported. Only I didn't teleport from one _place_ to another, I'd teleported from one _time_ to another. As I watched what was going on, I watched my younger self leaving the library with Cyclops and Storm… the day I was first brought to meet Professor Xavier. And I had no idea how to time travel back to where I should be.

"Fucking Stark!" I mumbled my frustration under my breath.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter Eleven:**

 **Barton's POV:**

After hours of listening to the reports about Tony's side of the story, I couldn't take any more. I spoke to Steve and Bucky and we decided we would go public with our side of the story. Victor sent out copies of the letters Sophie had left behind for the three of us to various news outlets, along with certain other documents. Not long after, Steve, Bucky, and I took over the airwaves.

"My name is Clint Barton and most of you know me as Hawkeye. Today, I stand here beside the leaders of the superhuman registration resistance, which I have silently been part of since the beginning, but I also stand here as a father who has seen what this civil war of superhumans has done to his daughter, and I need to break my silence.

"Steve Rogers is my son-in-law. Sophie Rogers is my daughter, a fact I had learned after the Avengers and I were sent on a mission to capture or kill her two years ago. When I realized that she was my seventeen year old daughter who, yes, was on a killing spree, I vowed not to let her be hurt. I got to the bottom of why she was doing what she was doing. Sophie grew up in a lab, watching her mother be experimented on, knowing that the doctors wanted to do the same to her. When they made her believe her mother was dead, she started hunting down the doctors who she believed had tortured and killed her mother. She was not right, but she was a teenager in pain, lashing out.

I took a deep breath. I knew there was a slideshow of pictures of Sophie with all of the Avengers playing behind us. This was harder than I thought it would be.

"When Sophie was captured and with the Avengers, she became determined to pay her debt to society by helping people with her gifts. What she did when she believed her mother died were isolated incidents and she felt so bad that she was willing to endanger her life in order to protect those who couldn't protect themselves, just like all of us Avengers had done. I didn't want her following my footsteps. I knew the kinds of dangers that came with that life, but there was no changing her mind. She felt it was what she needed to do to atone for what she had done, so, along with Bucky Barnes, they both joined the Avengers.

"Everyone knows about the incident in the Sudan, where these two are blamed for killing all those women and children in the village square. But there is so much that isn't known. For example, Bucky Barnes suffered a PTSD episode in the Sudan that caused Sophie to take the risk that she did, not knowing about the bombs. And I know this for a fact. Not long after Barnes was found, while my daughter had been arrested the first time, he stayed with me, and he slipped into another episode in the middle of the night. It wasn't until I made him remember Sophie, who is like his little sister, his protégé, that I finally got him to calm down.

"Still, there is more that nobody knows. Before these two had been sent to the Sudan, they had been sent on other successful missions. One of those missions stopped an enhanced in California from kidnapping and experimenting on teenagers. Because of Sophie and Bucky, at least half of the victims were found, alive, and able to be returned to their families.

"In addition, there is a serum that is distributed to police and military personnel, that helps their bodies heal faster when injured to give them better odds of surviving injuries that were once fatal. It is distributed through Pym Tech, but that formula was created by Sophie. She knew that there were so many people who risked their lives to help others who didn't have the ability to heal the way she did, so she wanted to find a way to make them a little safer. The serum basically gives them the healing of an enhanced human without actually being enhanced, thanks to countless lab hours on Sophie's part. That is who my daughter really is. The person who wants to help people, who will risk it all to help.

"Tony Stark has painted Sophie Rogers as a monster, but he is the monster since the registration has become law. Whether or not someone is in violation of the law, they still hold basic human rights, of which Tony Stark, Maria Hill, and even my former partner, Natasha Romanoff, ensure the members of the resistance they arrest are denied. For example, my daughter, who both Stark and Romanoff mentored before the incident in the Sudan, tortured my daughter when she was in custody both times. Stark, Romanoff, or Hill sanctioned the kidnapping of two of my three other children, children who are not enhanced, and are still coping with the loss of their mother, and who are minors. When my daughter went to rescue them in my place, Romanoff and Deadpool, a dangerous and unstable enhanced mercenary for hire, were there waiting to arrest whoever went to rescue my son and daughter."

Steve put his hand on my shoulder then.

"There have been many casualties in this dispute," he started. "And Stark doesn't want a peaceful resolution. He wants his way in order to end this war, no negotiations."

"When Steve went into peace talks with him, Stark demanded a full surrender from the resistance," Bucky chimed in. "When Barton left the resistance for personal reasons, I went to him to find out what it would take to get this to end, and he said it would take my death. I went to him to talk to him like a man, nobody with me, no tricks, and he told me he wanted me dead because he thought Sophie would be better off without me."

I nodded at Steve, giving him permission to tell the truth about why I left. I couldn't do it. He looked at me questioningly. I nodded at him again.

"Clint Barton took his girlfriend, Anya Holden, my wife's mother, and left the resistance because Anya nearly died. She was so concerned about the precautions needed to take her to a hospital without getting anyone in the resistance arrested, she didn't tell any of us she was sick. She was the resistance doctor, and none of us knew that her kidney had failed, she had appendicitis, or that she was pregnant.

"On the very day that Sophie finally got control of new abilities she gained after being attacked by Tony's creation, Ragnarok, at our failed peace talks, Clint came to us in a panic. Anya was in bad shape. Sophie did everything she could to save her mother, but she couldn't save the life of her unborn brother or sister. It tore Sophie apart, and made Clint leave the resistance, needing time to spend time with Anya and his other children. Even still, Stark went after him. It was after the miscarriage that Clint's oldest son and youngest daughter were kidnapped, leading to my wife's second arrest. And it was during that time we found out just what kind of monsters are running the pro-registration forces," Steve said, motioning to Bucky, obviously not able to talk about his own tragedy either.

"In addition to the letters Sophie left for each of us that were sent out to various news outlets before we started this broadcast, we included records that I'm sure that neither Stark nor Hill would ever want seen by the public," Bucky said. "Deadpool arrested Sophie, my great-grand-niece, because yes, her mother is my younger sister's granddaughter, after shooting her point-blank in the chest. Her medical records from 42, the prison in the negative zone, showed that Stark and the others in charge knew soon after her arrest that she was pregnant. This didn't stop them from her daily 'interrogations' where, as Spider-Man told us after seeing the effects of these 'interrogations' she looked like she went five rounds with the X-Man Colossus.

"Sophie may only be nineteen, but she is brilliant and cunning. She did what nobody thought was possible… She broke out of 42, which Stark and Reed Richards didn't want anyone to know. After she broke out, she took refuge on Asgard, which is where she found out that she, like her mother, had lost a child… One that she didn't know she was carrying. It was why her enhanced healing had stopped. Her body was trying to protect both her and the child and it couldn't do that.

"Sophie was eighteen when she miscarried because of the treatment she suffered in 42. When she returned from Asgard, Sophie told Steve before she cried herself to sleep… then started screaming not long after. She was having night terrors of what she endured not once but twice at the hands of the Stark and his pro-registration forces. One month before she turned nineteen, she lost a child, and because Stark isn't interested in negotiating an end to this, she doesn't even have time to mourn."

"Tony Stark has been very vocal lately about my daughter killing James Rhodes. But just last night, when their meeting turned south and she was supposedly killed, Sophie went behind our backs because it was eating her alive that an _accident_ killed James Rhodes. She felt she owed it to Tony Stark, her former mentor, her former teacher, to tell him the truth about what happened to his best friend, so he could have that closure. In the time since the death of James Rhodes, my daughter had been withdrawing from everyone, spending all her time in her lab, not training with the resistance. She stopped trusting herself because of her guilt.

"Just before we moved her mother and siblings somewhere that nobody on the pro-registration forces could find them, Sophie told me what happened when James Rhodes had been killed. He tracked her because she had hacked a Stark satellite to find something. He threatened to put her back in jail, but it wasn't until he went on the attack that Sophie drew her weapon, one that she is getting used to and didn't realize the power it held. She didn't realize when she threw it at him to give her breathing room, it would actually fully pierce the War Machine armor or that lightning would strike it as it made contact with the armor, frying him and the circuitry. Sophie told me she had wanted to try to save him, because Rhodey had once been her friend and she understood he wasn't a bad guy, just bound by his duties to his country and to Stark, but it was too late. It crushed her that she couldn't do anything for him.

"My daughter, my nineteen year old daughter, went to Anthony Stark alone, because the guilt of accidentally killing a former friend, his best friend, was eating her alive and she wanted him to know the truth. And what did Stark do? After everything else he's already done to her? He tried to arrest her again! Now, he's claiming she's dead! What happened, Stark? Did your plan blow up in your face? Or were you that threatened that you had been out-smarted multiple times by a teenager? Was your ego so hurt you had to take away my daughter?" I asked, finally breaking down.

"This is not what we want. It was never what we have wanted. This is not what the resistance is about. And yet, this is what Tony Stark has tried to make us into. We have tried to keep our fights away from civilians. His forces attack us in the middle of the streets. We try to subdue without killing. His forces seem to have capture or kill orders. Please, just consider the facts. Stark has made us look like the bad guys here, but all we're trying to do is preserve our freedoms peacefully. We're the ones suffering most of the casualties because we won't attack everywhere," Steve said as he had Victor cut the feed.

 **Bucky's POV:**

We went upstairs and turned on the tv. Our message was playing on all the major channels. In addition to the video we sent, reporters were reacting to the letters and the documents showing that Stark tracked Barton after he left the resistance and that he knew Sophie was pregnant when she was in 42. It seemed that with us opening this can of worms, showing the kind of monster Stark was, the reporters wanted to hear from him. They wanted to know how he could justify torturing a pregnant teenager.

In the meantime, I didn't believe that Sophie was dead. She had to have had a chance to open a portal, but with an explosion leaving Stark believing she was dead, there was no telling where she was.

 **Sophie's POV:**

When I realized that I was six years in the past, I knew I needed to be extremely careful. If I wasn't, I could change everything about the time I was from. Not knowing what else to do, I made my way to one of the two people I knew would believe me, even though in this time, I hadn't met him yet. Still, I made my way down to Greenwich Village, to 177A Bleecker Street, the Sanctum Sanctorum of the Sorcerer Supreme, Doctor Strange.

Knocking on the door of the Sanctum, Wong opened the door, looking surprised that I was there.

"Hi Wong, I need to see Doctor Strange. It's an emergency," I said.

"How do you know who I am or who lives here?" He demanded.

"I'm in trouble, Wong. I know you don't know me. Not yet. I don't meet Doctor Strange originally for another year or so… When I'm about fourteen. I've time-travelled from six years in the future and I'm not sure how to get back, so I've been very careful about not interacting with anything in this time and made my way here for help. So please, may I see Doctor Strange?"

"How do I know you're telling me the truth?"

I thought for a minute, then pulled out my wallet, where I kept the summoning spell Doctor Strange gave me in case of emergency.

"When I'm fourteen Doctor Strange gives this to me and tells me to use it if I am in dire need. It will call to him no matter where in the cosmos he is," I said, showing Wong the spell.

Wong looked from the spell to me in astonishment. Then he ushered me into the house and left me in a room, instructing me to touch nothing. Not long after, Stephen Strange walked into the room.

"Wong tells me that you come from the future with a spell I give you in about a year or so?"

"Yes, Stephen. I need your help. You will meet me when I'm about fourteen. But I'm nineteen now."

"How did you time travel?"

"I think I was trying to open a portal to keep someone from sending me to a prison in the negative zone."

"I won't ask who or why there is a prison in the negative zone."

"I wouldn't give you those answers anyway. Sorry. I'm trying to give you the minimum information to answer your questions because I'm worried about how it will affect my timeline."

"Alright, so you were trying to open a portal. Have you time travelled before?"

"No. Originally my portals could only take me across this world. After an incident where I was hit with an overload of electricity I was able to open portals to other realms… Which I realized when I woke up in Asgard with an angry Thor standing over me. Time travel was never part of my abilities."

"What are your abilities?"

I listed the current list of abilities.

"And you were born with them?"

"All but the ability to fully control electricity and realm-jumping. That all came after being electrocuted."

"And now time travelling. Were you electrocuted again?"

"I think the person who was trying to send me back to the negative zone, his device exploded as I opened the portal. I think that's how I wound up here."

"I think I may be able to get you back to your time. But I have to ask, do you have anyone in that time who may be able to teach you how to control this ability? Because if this is not a one-time thing, as I expect it is not, then you will do this again."

I thought about it for a minute. Realistically, the only person I knew who might be able to help me was Professor Xavier, but he wasn't around anymore in my time.

"Not really. When the powers of electricity and realm-jumping unlocked, Thor helped me. I don't think he can help me with this."

"Then, you might as well give me a name to call you by, because I think it best you stay here while I teach you to control this ability," Stephen said, making me realize I hadn't given either of them my name.

"You can call me Becca for now, Stephen. You will learn my true name when you meet me next time."

"Alright, Becca. I will respect that you are protecting your identity. Let's start your lessons. Time travel is no easy feat to control."

 **Natasha's POV:**

I had been looking everywhere for any clues that Sophie Rogers was still alive. The resistance had successfully made the public start looking at us as the monsters, even though we were the ones following the law. No matter what resources I tapped, there were no signs of Sophie Rogers surviving Tony's explosion.

Tony and Hill called me to meet them. I needed to give them a sit-rep. When I walked into Tony's office, he looked more stressed out than I had seen him since the registration became the law. It was obvious that Hill and Stark had been arguing.

"Well, Romanov, what do you have to tell us?" asked Hill.

"I went back to the site of the explosion and double-checked Tony's results. There are no signs of teleportation there. I've also been digging around, calling on old contacts, any resources I have, trying to find out if the resistance is hiding her somewhere or somehow got her out of the country. So far, I've come up with nothing except the Wakandans are holding a memorial service for her in Wakanda. They are calling what you did to Sophie an outrage."

"The Wakandans? Why are they holding a memorial service for Sophie Rogers?" asked Hill. "She's a fugitive from the law."

"And apparently a friend of their Queen. The King and Queen have called a period of mourning as she mourns Sophie's death," I explained. "I didn't know that Sophie knew Storm."

"There was a lot we didn't know about Sophie Rogers, Natasha. I wonder if we could ask the X-Men for help on this?" asked Tony.

"You know we can't. They've made their stance of non-involvement in this conflict known. They won't get involved for either side. But, if Sophie knew Storm, chances are she knew at least a few of the others, too. Maybe a neutral party could get them to help us find out if she's alive? We'd have to guarantee that we wouldn't use their information to try to arrest her again, but if we did, maybe they'd help a neutral party find Sophie," I suggested.

"Absolutely not," said Hill. "If we find Sophie Rogers she is going right back to 42. I don't care where the information comes from."

"Well, we can count the X-Men out of the equation then," I said. "We've already guaranteed them immunity provided they don't get involved in either side of this conflict. If you try to use their information to arrest Sophie, you force them to break that agreement. They won't do it, Hill. Is that worth it?"

Hill glared at me before she stormed out of the office.

"Do you ever get the feeling that _she's_ more threatened by superhumans than anyone else?" I asked Stark. "It almost seems as if she wants full control of them or out of the way completely, with or without a pulse."

"You may be onto something, Natasha. But unless we can prove this, we can't do anything," Tony said.

"And Fury is M.I.A. Probably helping the resistance. He's big on telling his superiors where to go as long as he can keep his toys to himself," I said.

"We could really use him right now," Tony said. "Do you think that maybe Cap is right? That we have turned into monsters?"

"I'm no different than when S.H.I.E.L.D. recruited me. I'm just using certain talents a lot more lately," I said. "But this registration act is costing us everything, Stark. Is it worth it? To go after all these people who have done so much good?"

 **Sophie's POV:**

It had been days since Stephen and I had started working on controlling the time travelling ability. I wasn't getting anywhere really, so I didn't understand how I made a six year jump to begin with. The only logical answer to me was the explosion that overloaded my system and gave me the power to begin with boosted my power to push me back six years. However, now that I was trying to actively control it, I wasn't having any luck. The furthest I had been able to travel was half an hour. It was frustrating. I wanted to go home.

"Isn't there any way to help me learn faster?" I asked Stephen in frustration.

"Becca, you must learn to focus the energy that opens the time portals inside of you before you can manipulate it into a six year jump. Until you can learn to focus your energy completely, there is no way you will be able to focus the energies in order to make the portal bring you back home," Stephen said. "And before you ask to go see Charles Xavier again, I must remind you that your current self, from this time, is with him. If you go to see him, it could have untold repercussions on your timeline. It is best you stay here and not risk damaging the timeline you would be returning to."

I sighed in frustration. I missed my family. I missed Steve and Bucky. I just wanted to go home. I also knew Stephen was right.

"I know you want to go home, Becca. I understand you must have a family waiting and worrying about you. But if you try to go now, you may not only miss your mark when making the jump, but you may destroy your timeline in the process. The people you love and miss now may not be the same when you get back to them. That is why I think it's best that you stay and continue to learn about this new ability," Stephen said softening to me.

"I know you're right. It's just frustrating. I'm nineteen years old. My father is waiting for me. My husband and best friend. They need me. I miss them," I said looking at my hands, knowing I couldn't say more than I had.

"I promise you, I will get you back to your time. We just need to work. Now, continue working on your focus and meditation exercises. I will return in a bit to check on you. I have some business to tend to."

"Of course, Stephen. And thank you for being so patient with me," I said to him before he left.

I heard him tell Wong to check on me from time to time while he was gone before he left. Then I went back to trying to meditate.

 **Steve's POV:**

"Steve?" Bucky called to me from the door of Sophie's lab.

I turned around to my best friend. We had been through so much together. Now we were both dealing with Sophie's loss.

"What's up, Buck?"

"There's something I need to tell you. About Sophie."

"What is it, Bucky?"

"I don't think she's dead, Steve. I don't know why or how I know, I just have a feeling somehow she got away from Stark."

"But Stark…"

"Stark wouldn't know what to look for when it came to Sophie if it bit him in the ass, Steve. I don't know. Maybe I'm connected to her because she gave me her portal ability. I don't understand this feeling. I just have this feeling deep down that Sophie isn't gone to us. Not forever."

"Then what do you think happened to her, Bucky?"

"I think Sophie _did_ try to open a portal when Stark tried to send her back to 42."

"Stark said there are no traces of energy from a portal."

"What if we have an incident like when we lost her after the peace talks, Steve? What if the explosions overloaded her and affected her teleportation ability?"

I ran out of the lab and into the front yard, Bucky right behind me. I looked to the skies and started yelling out.

"Thor! Thor, if you can hear me, I need you to come to us! It's about Sophie! Please, Thor! I need your help more now than ever!"

It seemed like we had been in the front yard forever when the bifrost opened. Thor stepped out, looking concerned.

"Captain, old friend. Heimdall brought me your message. What has happened? Is Sophie safe?"

I explained to Thor what happened. His anger became more palpable by the minute.

"Thor, please. I know if Sophie had opened a portal to Asgard on her own you would have at least gotten word to us that she was safe, so I know that she is not with you. Is there any way to find out if she may have opened a portal somewhere else?" I asked him. "Bucky feels certain that Sophie is not dead. He thinks it may be they connected on a deeper level when she shared her teleportation power with him on their first mission. If he's right, Sophie is out there somewhere and we need to find her. We need to bring her home."

"Captain, my old friend, I will find out what I can and report back to you. I will return to Asgard and speak to Heimdall. He sees all. If she is in another realm, he will be able to tell us. If she is out there, I give you my word, we will bring her home."

Thor left us in the yard, returning to Asgard. We weren't sure how long he would be gone.

"We shouldn't tell Clint anything until we know anything for sure, Bucky. He's lost too much already. We can't give him hope that Sophie is still alive and be wrong."

"Don't you believe me, Steve?"

"Of course I believe you. But you're my best friend. I've known you forever. He's her father. He's only known both of you for two years. And in that time he's lost almost everything. His wife, an unborn child, his children and girlfriend are who knows where in the galaxy under Asgardian protection, his daughter has been through hell herself, his kids were kidnapped, his daughter had to kill her twin brother… do you see what I'm saying here? It's not that I doubt you, Buck. I'm just worried about Clint. With everything he's been through, everything we've all been through, we need to know we can bring Sophie home before we give him hope that she's out there."

"What if she's out there, but we can't bring her back? What if I can't even teleport to her?"

"We don't tell him that, Bucky. We can't tell him that she's out there but he'll never see her again."

"Then no matter what happens, we need to find a way to get her home, Steve. No matter what I need to do to strengthen or change my teleportation abilities like her abilities have changed, I'll do it."

"Buck… You realize that Sophie was electrocuted with high voltages of electricity when her portals changed, don't you? Can you handle the possibility of being subjected to being electrocuted again?"

"If it's the only way to get Sophie home again, I'll find a way to deal with it, Steve. I'm the one she shared her teleportation ability with, which connected us on a deeper level. It might have to be me. And I'm not gonna let PTSD be what makes you a widow or makes Clint lose another child to this war. I can't do that. Besides, she's my best friend. I can't let her down."

"We'll get through this together, Bucky. I promise."

 **Sophie's POV:**

I had been with Doctor Strange for almost a month. With his training, I had successfully made my longest jump in time, six months. It was a huge difference than when I first started. The major progress gave me hope that I would be able to return to my time… but I was on a deadline. My current self in this timeline was going to meet Doctor Strange within months. I had to be back in my right time before that happened. Just like me going to Professor Xavier could have untold consequences while my current self was with him, so could me training with Doctor Strange when he met 14 year old me.

"Have you done all of your meditative exercises for the morning, Becca?" Stephen asked me.

"Yes, I have."

"Good. We're going to try your most difficult jump yet. One year from now. I will go to the point where you will meet me. Wait two minutes after my departure and then focus on finding me _right here_ on this spot one year from now. I will see you in a year, Becca," Stephen said to me, before he disappeared.

I looked at my watch. I was counting down the time to when I needed to teleport. As I did, I focused my mind. I knew what the city and even the place I would be teleporting to were like in one year. When the two minutes were up, I opened my portal, my intended destination was Stephen Strange one year from where I stood.

When I stepped out of the fire portal and it closed behind me, Stephen Strange was standing in front of me, looking extraordinarily proud of me. He looked at me as if I had done more than I had been asked to. I was confused.

"Welcome, Becca. You have made your longest jump ever," Stephen said to me. "Three years."

"Three… three years?" I stumbled out. "You said to follow you _one_ year into the future. How did I follow you _three_ years into the future?"

"You used your instinct, which is what I needed you to start doing. You are very well trained with your portals, Becca. These new time travel portals, however, _scared_ you. That was why you could not control you, even though the control was already there. It was why it was taking you so long to progress in your training. Your mind was holding you back," Stephen started explaining. "So I told you an exact place to find me, but changed the timeframe I would be in. This made your instincts kick in, and you just followed the energy to where you needed to go, not a specific time stream to find an energy. Which is how you find me two years later in the future than I told you I would be."

"So, this is why you've had me meditating so much? You've been trying to get me to stop using my mind as I teleported with these portals and use my instincts and other senses instead?" I asked.

Stephen nodded at me.

"Wouldn't it have been easier if you told me that weeks ago?"

"You needed to realize that this is what was holding you back on your own. Now, I will open a portal and return us to our point of origin. After you rest and practice a little more in the next week, I will make sure you will make it back to your family."

"I don't know how I can ever repay you, Doctor Strange."

"Don't abuse this ability, Becca. Time travel is a very dangerous thing. It can destroy everything you hold dear."

"I promise you, Doctor Strange, I have no intention of using this ability once I get home. Things happen for a reason. The things that already happened, if I changed them and the timeline changed because I did… I would be the only one who remembered… other than maybe you, wouldn't I?"

"Yes, you would."

"While it would be nice to save some of the people I love from the pain they've suffered, I don't know how it would change the way things are _or_ how I would be able to hide what I would know from them. I couldn't lie to them and I couldn't tell them the truth and hurt them with what didn't technically happen. The past needs to stay in the past."

"You understand things most teenagers can't, Becca."

"Why are you sorry?"

"Because only children who grow up too fast have comprehension like this at such a young age. I do not know your story, and for reasons we both agree on, I can't, but I'm sorry that you've been through so much for someone so young."

"Thank you, Doctor Strange. All I'll say on that is when you do meet me and find out my true identity, you will help me in a major way. And I will _never_ forget that kindness. Just like I will never forget this kindness."

"Becca, may I ask you one question about the time you come from?"

"Sure."

"You came to me here in this time to help you with the portals. Why did you feel you couldn't go to me in that timeframe as well? Unless I'm dead?"

"No, you are alive, Doctor Strange. It's just that… well… you spend most of your time in meditation, trying not to involve yourself in matters of nonhumans in my time. With reason, but I won't say more than that. You've already come out of hiding once for me, in a life or death situation, and I don't want to ask you to do it again."

"Alright, I won't ask anything more about your time. Obviously there are some tensions that, for whatever reasons, I have chosen to take a neutral stance in. We'll leave it at that and I will find out what the tensions are and why I decided to stay neutral in it when that time comes. For now, let's get back to where and when we need to go."

 **Steve:**

" _Steve," Sophie said to me. "Steve, I don't know how long I can keep this going. Please listen to me."_

" _Sophie?" I asked, not believing she was even in my dreams. "Are you really able to be in my dreams? Are you alive?"_

" _I'm alive, Steve. I'm working on coming home. I need time. But I love you, and am working so hard to get back to you. Tell Bucky and Dad. Nothing will keep me from coming back to you."_

 _Sophie started to fade. I grabbed her and kissed her before she could._

" _But where are you?"_

" _Trapped in the past," she said as she disappeared._

I woke with a start. I was sweating, but I could smell Sophie in the room. I could still feel her lips on mine and her body in mine, just like they had been in the dream. Rushing to get dressed, I hurried out of the door into the yard to where the bifrost had been opened so often before.

"Thor! I need you! It's about Sophie!" I yelled, knowing Heimdall would get Thor for this.

Moments later, Thor stepped out of the bifrost.

"What news do you have about Sophie?" Thor asked, as Bucky came out of the house.

"Heimdall hasn't been able to locate her through any of the realms, has he?" I asked.

"No, my friend. He has not. Heimdall is most distressed. There has never been a living soul in the nine realms that was not blocked by an infinity stone that he could not track."

"What if he's looking in the right place, but the wrong _time_?"

"What are you talking about, Steve?" Bucky asked.

"I saw Sophie in my dreams. And it was really her. I know it was," Steve said.

"Well, what did she say, my friend?" Thor asked.

"She said she was trapped in the _past_. She promised she would be coming home, she was working on it, but she was in the past, not dead."

"How do you know it's real?" Bucky asked.

"She told me to reassure you and Clint that she was coming home. No matter what, she's coming home. Tell me that wasn't Sophie."

"Sounds like that warrior spirit Sophie possesses," Thor said.

"Bucky?" I asked.

"It does sound exactly like something Sophie would say. But we promised not to tell Clint until we were sure we could get her back," Bucky replied.

"We did," I agreed, turning to Thor. "Can Heimdall locate a person through time? Because if he can tell us that Sophie, my _wife_ , is stuck in the wrong time, we know what I saw in my dream is true."

"I'm sure Heimdall can do it. Now that he knows to look through time instead of through the realms, he may find her," Thor said as he stepped into the bifrost and disappeared.

"So we'll wait until we hear back from Thor before we tell Clint anything," I said to Bucky.

"I think that's a better idea, Steve. What if your dream was just your mind playing tricks on you, Steve?"

"I don't think so, Buck. When I woke up, I could still _smell and feel_ Sophie in the room. As if she had just been in there. I haven't had that in so long, Buck."

"Well, hopefully, Thor will come back and tell us that Heimdall found her in another point in time."


End file.
